Back to Blog

May 2023 Newsletter

How can it be May already? Here we are, back in your inbox - thanks for receiving our emails and keeping in touch with what we are up to....

Oamaru Mail: Waitaki tartan article

...

Autumn 2023 Newsletter

It's Autumn, and it's getting chilly...Luckily for you we have lots of goodies to keep you warm and some of them are even on sale!...

A really big tartan project!

We have been thinking of designing and weaving a tartan that reflects the Waitaki district for some years, nearly 17 in fact, and suddenly the time is right. This is a big project; personally, financially, and very importantly for us, culturally. It is important we tell the story of the Waitaki – the land, the river, and the people – with authenticity and respect....

It's almost Christmas!

Welcome to our very last newsletter of 2022. I can't believe it was August when I last emailed you all, and suddenly we are already half way through December. It's not like we have been swanning around either, we've been hard at work weaving gorgeous fabrics for you!I am now Rod's "apprentice" in the shed, with my own loom, and responsible for weaving 90 metres of gorgeous NZ wool fabric we think will be very suitable as drapes. The warp is a natural white, while the weft is a dark charcoal grey...

August 2022

Welcome to our very brief August newsletter where we announce the nameof the lucky person to receive a $200 gift card to spend online. Rod andI hope you are all well and surviving the winter without too many ills and chills. We have had a busy time of late. As you know, I spent July in Wanaka, leaving Rod at home to weave curtains for our latest commission. A huge thank you to the teams at Architecture and Design Library and Revology Concept Storefor hosting us and making McLean & Co feel so wel...

Radio NZ - Country Life interview - 2019

Yesterday one of the people I was talking to during our "Meet the Maker" in Revology Concept Store asked if they'd heard me talking on the radio a couple of years ago. "Yes," I said, "I was interviewed by Kathryn Ryan on Country Life, and the link to it should be on our website." Well, I checked, and it wasn't on our website, so, here it is now!!...

A gift of creativity from Owen

One day, earlier this year, I got an email from someone named Owen Douglas-Jones. Nothing strange in that as I often get emails from people I don't know. However this ended up being a very special email. It turned out Owen is a film maker, holidaying in New Zealand from the UK and he asked if he could possibly visit us and make a short film about what we are doing. He works in product photography and video back in the U.K. and was looking to pivot into much more story focused projects. "Cool!" I...

Welcome to winter in Wanaka.

...

What's happening at McLean & Co in May 2022?

Who can believe it is already May 2022? Firstly, thanks to all of you who supported us during our "Wish we were at the Wanaka Show" sale. Secondly, thank you to everyone who responded to my appeal to drop us review online or by email. It really makes a difference to our online sales if people can buy confidently from us. If you have bought from us and love what we are doing, please consider leaving us a review. We have had lots of visitors to our weaving shed of late - we love showing people o...

We love Fashy hotties!

We love our Fashy hot water bottles and have used them for years throughout our cold South Island winters. We recommend using German designed and manufactured Fashy-Thermoplast hot water bottles. Fashy has been making hot water bottles since 1948 and has continuously been developing its technology and design. These hotties are robust and durable, odourless and rubber free, with a large opening for safer filling. We stock Fashy hot water bottles in red, blue and grey. We have plenty in stock so c...

Collaborating with Revology Concept Store

If you are in Wanaka go and check out Revology Concept Store at 28 Helwick Street. This beautifully curated shop is definitely worth a visit, and not just because they stock McLean & Co. The Revology Concept Store & Tea House is about circular design & mindful living. It's a space dedicated to rethinking how we design, use (and reuse) materials. Along with original designs from their Design Studio, they have a curated selection of useful, beautiful everyday items from local and international des...

Wishing we were at the Wanaka Show Sale this weekend

Like many thousands of others, we wish we at the Wanaka Show this morning, ready to experience the camaraderie, atmosphere and sheer joy of an amazing event. It's not just about making money (although that certainly helps!!) it's also about catching up with friends and acquaintances, old and new, and talking about our journey, our product and our passion for New Zealand wool and our Hattersley looms. Because we can't catch up at the show this year, we are taking this opportunity to bring some of...

Newsletter - Feb 2022

Hi, I'd better get this written and sent out to you quickly - it's already nearly March and I've been busy making product for the coming cooler months while Rod has been busy weaving our first commission for the year. We have an interesting year lined up and are both excited by the potential of 2022....

Naming our textile collections

"How do you name your fabric collections?" Good question, often asked. Here at McLean & Co. we focus on local. We focus on history and tradition. We focus on craftsmanship. We focus on sustainable. We focus on slow... Because of this, when it came time to start naming our NZ wool fabrics it was an easy decision to focus on the history and tradition of our town, Oamaru, with its connection to the wool industry here, past and present, and its connection to the United Kingdom, the homeland of many ...

The history of herringbone

We weave a lot of herringbone patterned fabric, all using natural fibres, usually New Zealand wool of course! The herringbone pattern has been around for a long time. It was named for its similarity to the skeleton of a herring fish with its distinctive v-shaped weaving pattern. It's also known as a broken twill weave and you will find it used a lot in woollen tweed fabrics. Evidently the earliest examples of the herringbone design were found in valuable Ancient Egyptian jewellery, in fabric ori...

Meet the maker - Oamaru 2021

We love being involved in the Waitaki Meet the Maker event. It's an opportunity to be part of something much bigger than ourselves, give back to the community and of course show people what we are doing in our shed. ...

Shining on...

Our son Lachlan Dougal McLean shines on in so many ways, some tangible and some not, but he is always here, there and everywhere, shining for so many people in ways Rod and I will never be aware of. We are honoured and humbled to have been featured in a passion project by the wonderful people from Green Renaissance.  ...

A video by Brian High about how we do what we do.

...

What's the Fashion Revolution?

It's April already and #fashionrevolutionweek2020    The world is a different place to this time last year. Many people are having time to take a breath, and take stock of some global issues that we often glance at, but don't look too deeply into. The issue of fast fashion's impact on our Earth; socially, culturally,environmentally, economically and ethically is one of these. In response to the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh and a call for more transparency in fast fashion...

Where does the time go???

I have been thinking it was time to write another wee episode for our blog. I couldn't believe it was October when I last sat down to do this!! It got me thinking, "Where does the time go?"...

Go Sweet Spot

One of the things that has concerned me for some time is the simple act of posting our orders away in plastic satchels - so a couple of weeks ago I did something about it. We joined the team at www.gosweetspot.com, a 100% New Zealand owned and managed company started by some mates a few years ago. You can read about how they started here.Theirs is a cool story - seeing an opportunity, making a kind of plan,getting out there, working really hard, really believing in what you are doing, caring abo...

October newsletter time...

The year is speeding by and we are busy weaving and making stock for our coming busy season. One would think that winter would be the busy time for woollen textile manufacturers, but actually the busy time for us spans November through to May - the tourist season, and then heading into winter. Jazz has been really busy weaving beautiful New Zealand wool into fabric for me to make into a new range of throws which will be online shortly. So far she has woven four colourways (Sky Blue, Daffodil Yel...

Wool, wool, wool....

Our business, McLean & Co weaves contemporary textiles using  New Zealand wool and traditional tweed and tartan patterns. Our textiles are limited edition, created in an ethical and sustainable manner; valuing the looms, the woollen fibre we use, and the people we work and interact with. Rod and I choose to weave woollen cloth. Wool is an exceptional fibre. A common fibre with superb attributes of being sustainable, resilient, absorbent, insulative, biodegradable, useful and reusable. The C...

August 2019 newsletter

Writing a newsletter is scary - I receive newsletters from a few organisations and companies and I am always interested in the written and visual content - and most of them look so amazingly perfect, well-polished and confident. Tonight I finished our August newsletter and then pushed the 'send' button - it was really scary because the only other newsletter I've done I had my friend Frances here with me and we both checked it over and worked on the visuals and format together. Tonight I had to b...