Weaving entrepreneur has designs on accolade
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BLACK Isle designer Claire Campbell has joined the list of notable Scotswomen being celebrated at the second Scottish Women’s Awards this week.
The former chartered accountant has been shortlisted in the creative industries leader of the year category.
Ms Campbell hopes to open the Highlands’ first tartan weaving mill of the 21st century at a former agricultural steading on the Black Isle, where she lives with her family.
Under company name Prickly Thistle, she produces bespoke tartans for clients, including the Belladrum Festival, Tomatin Distillery and rock band Runrig.
Ms Campbell’s Plan B crowdfunding campaign was centred around a new pop-up mill created in Evanton which will allow production to start.
All profits from the pop-up mill are to be invested into the Black House Mill renovations she has set her sights on on the Black Isle.
The west wing of the permanent mill will be the first to be built with the £40,000 raised and will provide an area for customising the tartan products weaved in the Highlands.
Mrs Campbell and her team will be using traditional boat shuttle looms relocated from around the UK and dating back to the 20th century.
She said of her unfolding plans: "It is like a book, like the Outlander books, you have to take it page by page, chapter by chapter to enjoy it."
Outlander author Diana Gabaldon has been a long-running advocate for bringing tartan mills back to the Highlands and has been sharing the Plan B fundraising links online.
One of Ms Campbell’s previous clients, the WooHa Brewing Company, is also among the nominees for the Scottish Women’s Awards.
Founded by American-born Heather McDonald, WooHa is targeting beer drinkers in her native US and last year moved from its original premises in Nairn to a new base a few miles away in Kinloss to meet demand. Ms McDonald is nominated in the business women of the year category for firms with less than 50 staff.
Also shortlisted for the same award is Anne Roberts, co-founder of Inverness-based Mime Technologies, which produces monitoring technology for use in in-flight medical emergencies and by emergency service first responders. Last year the young company won the Highlands and Islands Enterprise award for excellence in research and innovation at the SCDI Highland Awards.
The Scottish Women’s Awards 2018 will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow, on Wednesday (September 12).
Irfan Younis, chief executive of event organiser Creative Oceanic, said: "The Scottish Women’s Awards 2018 are in their second year and aim to celebrate the amazing breadth of talent and the hard work of female professionals and entrepreneurs, whose work often goes unrecognised.
"We are very happy to see the huge engagement of the Scottish public who have voted for their favourite female personalities to give them the recognition they deserve. We are looking forward to welcoming inspirational Scottish women at the ceremony who have gone above and beyond to achieve their goals."
