Despite a series of delays, husband and wife team Rod and Sue McLean have finally started weaving their tartan inspired by Waitaki’s landscape and history.
They bought their weaving looms in 2006 and had been planning to create the tartan since.
The wool was delivered last week and they hoped to have some of the fabric completed in the next six weeks.
"Sorry it’s taken so long," Mr McLean said.
The tartan would consist of five colours — red, aqua, taupe, grey and dark green.
The first four colours were inspired by the Waitaki landscape and its people, but dark green was a late addition.
It was added after Mrs McLean saw a Mary Horn painting which used clay of that colour.
"We just knew we had to have it."
She wanted to maintain the important stories — the braided river, bedrock, limestone and relationships between people and the land — through the tartan.
It was also reflected in the material, as the unrefined wool came from a station in Omarama, was scoured near Timaru, spun in Christchurch and would be woven in Oamaru.
The first run of tartan would measure 150m long, but there were many more steps in the process before it would be ready for sale.
It would be wound on to the warping mill in three-inch wide sections, transferred to the loom and then woven.
Mrs McLean said she trusted her husband had the pattern right but laughed and said someone would love it even if it had imperfections.
The duo intended to raffle off a piece of tartan to raise funds for the Forrester Gallery’s extension project.
They had been involved with the gallery for many years and wanted to support the new development.
Mrs McLean intended to register their fabric with the Scottish Tartans Authority but was considering creating a second version with a different design first.
They planned to register next year.
