Eclipse tartan vs the one you wore for the USA interview

[DavidM]

What is the difference between the two tartans?
Thanks

[Barb T]

Hi all,

The Eclipse tartan and the Lunar tartan are entirely different tartans.

The Lunar tartan was designed in the 1970s in honor of the Apollo moon landings, with the red stripe for the rocket flame and the other colors to represent the rocks of the lunar surface. The original tartan was red, black, light gray, and brown. Here is the registered sett:



This didn't pass the smell test to me as a geologist, because the Moon is relentlessly gray. So, when I had it custom woven a number of years ago, I substituted a medium gray for the brown. Dalgliesh now has this sett in their online catalog as "Lunar 2":



Anyway, that's the tartan I wore for the interview. I did check the Register, and there is no Eclipse tartan registered yet - it may be in the pipeline. But, anyway, if there is an Eclipse tartan, it is just a different tartan than the Lunar.

Barb

[DavidM]

OOps, I meant Lunar...
Thanks for the reply.

[Barb T]

So what did you mean by the difference between the two tartans?? Which two tartans?

[DavidM]

So what did you mean by the difference between the two tartans?? Which two tartans?

Sorry for late reply. USA Kilts described a tweek of the Lunar tartans using a marled (?) grey, a limited run of that tartans. It's hard to tell on a laptop screen how different it is . Just interested in your thoughts. I'll start a new thread about kid's Kilts.
Thanks

[Barb T]

Hi David,

The tartans are actually quite different in character, even though the overall colors are very similar. The marled medium gray yarn gives the tartan a kind of "fuzzy" look, whereas the the solid color yarns of the Lunar that I have had woven give a sharp feel to the color areas. My preference is for the sharp look, because shadows on the Moon are very sharp (essentially no diffusion of light into shadowed areas). Unless there is something like someone's space suit to reflect light into a shadowed area, the shadows are completely and utterly black, and the line between an illuminated area and a shadowed area is razor sharp. That's the geologist in me talking. Other people prefer the gradations of Rocky's marled yarns - it's a matter of preference.

I should also say that the nature of the difference doesn't show up very well in a computer rendering of the sett - you really need to see a piece of each woven tartan itself to see the difference. I've added a couple pics in the next post.