One of the aims of the Friends is to enhance the visitor experience along with promoting the Museum. To this end we have developed traditional craft activities in which visitors can get involved through hands-on workshops, recreating the work of families at the time of Robert Burns. Some of our very successful past activities include ink-making and writing; darning; rag-rug making; oat bannock making; dyeing with locally growing plants; and weaving and ropemaking.
In 2020 the Friends of Robert Burns Birthplace Museum received an award from the CO-OP Community Fund for a Spinning Wheel Project. Its initial aim was to develop hands-on workshops to demonstrate the art of wool spinning to families and children visiting the museum. The second aim was to extend this to local community and disability groups allowing them to imagine sitting in Burns Cottage doing what Robert Burns mother Agnes used to do daily in that very house.
Money donated to the Friends by the CO-OP Community Fund was used to purchase 3 spinning wheels and related equipment and materials including fleece, wool fibre and carding cards. We were able to obtain a fourth spinning wheel through a kind donation of an older wheel which needed a slight repair.
By the end of 2021 we had 4 spinning wheels and materials ready for our workshops. In early 2022 a small group of volunteers eager to learn the skills involved in wool spinning got together on a regular basis, first in the Pavilion, next to Burns Cottage and later in the Museum to learn and practise the skills of spinning, plying and weaving.
Moving forward to 2023, this Spinning group is now well established and meets every Thursday in the foyer of the Museum from 11-1pm. We demonstrate to visitors how to card wool fibre for spinning; how to spin using spindles and spinning wheels; the use of a ‘lazy kate’ for plying wool and how to make hanks using a ‘nidi noddi’. Visitors – children and adults – are welcome to watch how to spin or to be more courageous and learn how to spin wool hands-on. These weekly spinning sessions have been very well-liked with local and international visitors to the museum alike. During the school holidays they are very popular with children of all ages willing to give it a go. These spinning demonstrations are a rewarding and enjoyable experience for both visitors and volunteers.
As mentioned above one of the main aims of this project was to roll out these workshops to different groups in the community and we have already been invited to run hands-on workshops in several venues. These include a Spinning demonstration at The Christening Gown Exhibition in the Auld Kirk of Ayr in the Summer of 2022; In the Summer of 2023, Elspeth Guthrie, the artist in residence at the Souter Johnnies Cottage in Kirkoswald invited us a couple of times to do a hands-on workshop in this beautiful cottage; In August 2023 we did a hands-on demonstration for residents at the Creggan Bahn Court Nursing Home in Seafield, Ayr.
In December 2023 we had a very special invitation to Southcraig School in Ayr, a school for pupils with additional support needs. A group of senior phase students rehearsing for a Sleeping Beauty Pantomime had never seen a real spinning wheel and they were wondering how Sleeping Beauty could have hurt her finger. After a short spinning demonstration to show them how a spinning wheel works, the students had the opportunity to feel the different texture of wool, flax and bamboo fibres. We look forward to welcoming them in the near future in the museum for a hands on session.
2024
In early January we were invited by the Crosshill Parish Church for a demonstration to women members of the Guild. It was a wonderful afternoon, and we were very glad to see a few of them successfully spinning wool fibre using drop spindles and spinning wheels.
In February we visited the Women’s Guild at the Auld Kirk of Ayr Guild. We had a very entertaining afternoon with most members of the Guild having a go at spinning.
In March we did a session at the Women’s Institute at the McCosh Hall in Kirkmichael. We enjoyed meeting all the members and showing them how spinning works. We look forward to seeing some of them visiting us at the Museum for a more in depth spinning session.
In May, we will be visiting Souter Johnnies Cottage again for a spinning demonstration. We hope to do a few of these sessions this year, including a wool dye session later in the Summer.
In July we will be doing a special Spinning Session (as well as other cottage crafts) at the Open Day at the Burns Museum. More details to follow.
We will continue our series of workshops for students with special support needs in various schools and colleges.
We are happy to do these demonstrations/workshops either in the museum or in other local institutions. We do not charge but we welcome donations, all of which will go towards purchasing materials.
If anyone has any old unused spinning equipment at home that they would like to donate to our group, please let us know and we would be happy to collect.
Please follow our Spinning blog where we share interesting family history stories from our visitors and keep you up to date with our latest activities.
Friends of Robert Burns Birthplace Museum 