Iseabal Hendry named as the Leathersellers' 2024 QEST Scholar

Iseabal Hendry has been named as the Leathersellers’ Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust Emerging Maker Scholar. Iseabal is a leatherworker and multi-disciplinary craftswoman based in the Scottish Highlands.

The Emerging Maker Grant provides funding to committed makers who have been practising professionally for four years or less and who have a strong connection to materials, technical skills and processes. The Leathersellers’ Foundation awarded £10,000 to QEST in support of the award.

Funding will enable Iseabal to push her leatherworking practice in new directions. She will undertake one-on-one training with five different master craftspeople across the UK – she will learn willow-weaving with Annemarie O’Sullivan, rush-weaving with Felicity Irons, random-weave with Polly Pollock, cordage, coiling and twining with Caroline Dear and plaiting with Sarah Paramor. Iseabal’s long term goal is to combine traditional basket weaving with fine leatherwork to create beautiful, bold and modern works. In the future, Iseabal hopes to pass on local basketry techniques to young people in schools.

Iseabal graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2016 with a Textile Design degree, specialising in embroidery with a specific focus on leatherwork. She launched her first collection of handwoven accessories in 2020. Her works are sold at luxury hotel, The Fife Arms, and in Scotland’s home for contemporary craft, BARD.

Iseabal said:

“This grant opens unique opportunities that simply wouldn’t be available to me otherwise. Financially at this stage in my career, where I’m still working a part-time job to support my craft, the opportunity to learn one-to-one from some of the best basketmakers across the UK is one I’m incredibly grateful for.”

“Beyond that, living in the rural West Coast Highlands means that weekly courses and in-person, regular training is much more difficult to access. The scholarship allowed me to create a bespoke programme of courses that catered specifically to my life here and overcame the barriers that I would normally face. My landscape, culture and identity are at the core of what I create, and being able to be based here and benefit from the best training around the UK is something I didn’t imagine could be possible, financially or logistically.

I approached five different tutors for their incredible knowledge and specific focus within their crafts. With much research I felt that these specific skills would apply, transfer and combine beautifully within my own leatherwork. By marrying traditional basketry skills with my woven leatherwork, I hope to celebrate our rich cultural history in craft through a contemporary, unique lens that speaks to our place in time now.”

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Photography © Calum Douglas