The Kilt is NOT in Crisis

[Riverkilt]

Forwarded my kiltmaker the link to the article about there only being ten kiltmakers left in Scotland. Her response was most reassuring.

"In answer to there are only 10 kiltmakers left in Scotland: (You can quote this if you'd like to)

"Rob McBain trained over 60 kiltmakers in Scotland at the Keith Kilt School. Due to the concentration of them in a relatively small area many have been unable to find enough work. Several kiltmakers still are working though and not all chose to become members of the Traditional Kiltmakers' Guild. The handful of American students who did attend the school did not receive their certificates choosing to spend from 4 days to two weeks at the school. All of the kilt school trained kiltmakers do not participate in the chat rooms and only a couple have a website. We do support each other and if someone has no work the others will often step forward to help.

The kilt quality labels developed in the industry appeared when the kilt school began to graduate students who could use the labels from the kilt school. This explains the article by the Herald Scotland of the fewer than 10 kiltmakers left, they are all in the industry. McBain has referred any interested in kilt school training to the school in the past. Unfortunately it's a much reduced course offered by Ann Grant and it's not open to Americans at this time and only certain Scottish students. Any teaching of kilt school techniques will be offered through seminars by Gail Burfoot, of the Cannan Connection in Canada."

Kathy Lare Kiltmaker
SQA Certified Kiltmaker
Keith Kilt School, Scotland
Traditional Kiltmakers' Guild

[Note: I believe what Kathy means by "chat rooms" is the kilt boards.]