The Scottish Wildcat Tartan thread: conceived here on X-Marks!

[California Highlander]

Here it is with a bit of gold and double black rather single black lines

Like the gold addition. I took your design and put it in a quad, to get an idea of how it might look as a kilt. Perhaps the black needs to be thicker and the white, less so?

[McMurdo]

Like the gold addition. I took your design and put it in a quad, to get an idea of how it might look as a kilt. Perhaps the black needs to be thicker and the white, less so?

Here it is with more black and less white.


Here it is as a Sett

[creagdhubh]

I'm really beginning to like where this particular tartan is heading. Well done, Glen.

[Alan H]

I was thinking much the same in the shower last night....break up the black lines and outline the white with two threads of black. This is much better I think!

[Alan H]

OK, I went away for 40 minutes to think about this and now I'm back. Here's what I have to say.

This thread is about designing, weaving, sewing-up and wearing kit, primarily kilts, made in what will become the Scottish Wildcat Tartan. It's no secret that I (we??) hope to raise some funds and awareness about the situation that the Scottish Wildcat is in, in terms of being on the brink of extinction. Now, unbeknownst to most of you, I'm sure, there are actually a significant number of people who scoff at the idea of the Scottish Wildcat being a separate sub-species from the housecat. Don't believe me? Go to YouTube and search for Scottish Wildcat videos. Read the comments. I'm not kidding, here....

I hope, and I know that several other people here on X Marks hope that this thread and the Wildcat thread int he Miscellaneous forum will, in time, garner a fair bit of attention. I mean, that's sort of the point, yes? In light of that and the fact that some people seem to think that if a cat looks superficially to their eyes like a tabby cat, therefore it must BE a tabby cat.... I wish to ask people who have posted, or are thinking about posting pictures of their household tabby cat (in the UK, the word is "moggie") to think twice about doing so.

I'm not an X Marks moderator, I can't force people to remove posts. I don't want to be the "post police"! I also don't think that anybody here on X Marks would post pictures of their tabby here out of maliciousness. Hey, I like cats, too! . I just ask that posters think about the possible implications of tabby cat pictures in this thread, as the project proceeds. The last thing that this tartan needs....or the Wildcat needs, is for scoffers and disbelievers to register here, or even just look here and laugh at the efforts and say "How stupid, it's just a tabby cat, like the one I have at home!" ................................. because they're NOT the same thing.

Please take this post in the spirit in which it was intended....not to "blame" anyone, or some off as Mister Snooty, OK? Thanks!!

Alan

[ThistleDown]

A soft suggestion for the tartan design. In the other thread there were just three of us who can be sure to have seen a grampius in the wild entirely due to our long life-times in its habitat. The reason that most walk-on-the-hills sightings today are of cross-breeds or wild domestics is not so much that the cat is a wary and motionless species by nature -- it is -- but that its evolution has given it a pelt that perfectly blends with the changing colours and textures of the uplands where it lives. I think it may be best to look more closely at that environment, rather than at pics of the cat on line, for the best colouration. The designs I see here so far don't blend well-enough with the Highland landscape to make them cat-like. My eyes and my monitor, of course

[Tim Little]

Here it is with more black and less white.


Here it is as a Sett

Nicely done, Glen!

[scottmphoto]

I like the tartan, I love earthy colors and I'd buy some if I could afford it when it gets woven.

[McMurdo]

A soft suggestion for the tartan design. In the other thread there were just three of us who can be sure to have seen a grampius in the wild entirely due to our long life-times in its habitat. The reason that most walk-on-the-hills sightings today are of cross-breeds or wild domestics is not so much that the cat is a wary and motionless species by nature -- it is -- but that its evolution has given it a pelt that perfectly blends with the changing colours and textures of the uplands where it lives. I think it may be best to look more closely at that environment, rather than at pics of the cat on line, for the best colouration. The designs I see here so far don't blend well-enough with the Highland landscape to make them cat-like. My eyes and my monitor, of course

I see what you are saying, what colours would you suggest to more closely mimic a pelt that perfectly blends with the changing colours and textures of the uplands?

[ThistleDown]

To begin with, there are no sharp edges in the cats' domain. That's why you can't see them unless you are still for a long time; they blur into their surroundings and only give themselves away when you cease to be interesting to them. Tartan design is really all about lines and edges. Although there are some tartans that appear to blend colours, tweeds more closely mimic nature's form; most tweeds have been designed to suit the particular environment in which they live. I'm not suggesting we deviate from the tartan path, Glenn, just that what comes out of the design-phase needs to be highly marketable to move profit from the manufacturer(s) to the charity. It is not really about the name and pleasing combinations, but about how they are seen to represent what we wish to protect.