Deborah Gray / Oban, Scotland

Deborah Gray is a sought after knitting instructor and textile artist based in Oban, on the West Coast of Scotland, working with wool and other natural materials. She has taught hand spinning, natural dyeing and knitting techniques for over 40 years, including at Edinburgh Yarn Festival, Loch Ness Knit, the Icelandic Knitting Festival, South Iceland Wool Week and Shetland Wool Week .

Most recent works focus on the connections the links between the landscape and the natural materials) which grow there, and the work created from those materials reflects these elements.

Deborah knits larger works drawing on the themes of Place and Time. She also uses knitting as a way to share experiences and inspiration from daily life, such as her Knitted Postcards series, and to highlight the origin of the material. Deborah also specialises in natural dyeing and botanical print.

In 2023 Deborah established Artspace Oban, studios for working artists and makers. She has  been Artist-in-Residence at The Icelandic Textile Centre, Blönduós, NorthWest Iceland in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2024.

Deborah is the Lead Practitioner for the Eco Creative Cluster dye garden project at The Rockfield Centre, Oban, developing a dye garden and programme of natural dyeing workshops while building a network of local and international practitioners focusing on the use of natural dyes and related practices. She is also a collaborator with Wool in the North, a project seeking to address the waste of wool around the North Atlantic by developing resources for sustainable wool-based tourism and other initiatives.