I studied in the Painting School at the Royal College of Art 1959-64 and was elected a member of the London Group in 1965. My early paintings were in earth colours of rooms, passages and staircases sometimes with a figure sitting in an armchair or on a sofa. By 1970 they were black and white and grey of empty rooms, passages and tunnels. From 1976-80 they were landscapes of Dorset in greens and blues. During the 70's I had my own kiln and made pinched bowls, plates and cups with horses, dogs and cats heads as handles, small pottery farm sets and tiny tea sets in red and buff clay. Also I made small toys out of wool: crocheted bears, elephants, donkeys, owls and pussycats, bears, dogs and horses made out of pipe cleaners bound with wool. These pots and toys were sold through Liberty, Heals, Naturally British, Kristin Baybars, Camden Lock Shop, No Man's Hand, Clowns, Tiger Tiger and craft fairs in London.
I began spinning and weaving in 1976 as the stair carpet was wearing out. I spin all my own wool on a spinning wheel that my brother made me, a bobbin screwed on a treadle sewing machine base. My fleeces come mainly from friends who live in Buckinghamshire, Devon and Cheshire and have flocks of different breeds of British sheep: Shetlands(fine/ brown, grey, black), Manx Logthans(soft/ brown), Black Welsh, Dorset Downs, Hebrideans (black) & Herdwicks (coarse/grey), Beatrice Potter's sheep from the Lake District.
The wool is spun directly from the fleece and the yarn is not dyed, the colours are the colours of the sheep. The rugs are tapestry woven on an upright frame loom and are approximately 150x75cm. After the cotton warp has been wound I begin weaving sitting on the floor, then sitting on a stool then on a chair, then standing up ending standing on the chair. It is a very slow, simple way of weaving, with the fingers. The designs are true to the nature of weaving: straight lines making geometric shapes. I make a rough drawing of the design to be woven but the interest for me comes while actually weaving. For instance judging which grey to use as there are a number of gradations and textures from dark to pale, soft to coarse and whichever one is chosen will then blend and contrast with the other colours around it. After a rug is finished it is washed in the bath and mothproofed so that it shrinks and felts and is made tougher. The rugs can be sewn together lengthwise to make a stair carpet and they can be sewn together to make larger rugs.
PRESS
'With my hands' Make Hauser and Wirth, Southampton, Long Island, New York, USA
Financial Times Weekend, House and Home, 6 January 2023
World of Interiors, 'Patchwork Family', 30 November 2022
Wallpaper, 'Textile artists:the pioneers of a new material world' 21 November 2022
Toast Insider, TOAST Magazine, 30 June 2021
2021 Eleanor Pritchard online article about Rachel Scott
Made in London: Rachel Scott by Katie Treggiden 24 May 2017
Independent on Sunday Magazine, Chroma Chameleon, 5 August 2012
The Observer Magazine, The Ethical Issue, 18 June 2006
PUBLICATIONS
'Rachel Scott New Works 2017-2018'
HSoA Publishing 2018
'WEAVING Contemporary Makers on the Loom'
Katie Treggiden
Ludion 2018
Link to purchase 'WEAVING' on Amazon
Made in London: Rachel Scott by William Scothern.