'Skaill' was specifically designed as a textile. The original design was painted to scale on point paper (paper with square grid used for planning weave construction), executed in gouache, probably with wax resist. The use of wax explains the distinctive broken and striated textures that characterise this design. 'Skaill' was translated by Alastair Morton into a striking heavy all-wool jacquard weave, produced in four colour-ways (black, dark green, flame orange and yellow). The composition spans the full width of the fabric and is divided into contrasting halves, one coloured, the other white, suggesting the silhouette of a rocky cliff face against the sea or sky.

Leslie Jackson, 'Alistair Morton and the Edinburgh Weavers' (London: V&A Publishing, 2012), pp.219-223.