Herring Packer Tea Cosy

I've been asked to design a few tea cosies with a Shetland theme and this is the first of them - a Shetland Herring Packer. The herring girls were a workforce of unmarried ladies usually that worked in the harbour gutting and salting the herring as the fishing boats brought them in.

So the tea cosy has an eighteenth or nineteenth century dress girl at work next to her salting barrel. She is wearing a large apron to keep her clothes clean. She is wearing a full length blue dress. I love history but the colours were always a bit dark and dismal, so by the power of artistic licence, I have used a colour pallet that gives a cheerier tea cosy.

On her head she has a head scarf to keep her hair out of the fish and to keep the smell of fish out of her hair. The scarf is tied in a knot at the back of her head.

It was a cold, outdoors job, so I have given her long sleeves to keep her arms warm.

She has a silver herring in her hands that she's working on and I thought I'd put a couple of herrings in the top of her barrel as well to look as if she's almost filled this barrel.

I thought with all those herrings about that the local cats would bound to be hanging around for a quick and tasty snack. So I have given the herring girl a hopeful kitty to stand by her.

The Shetland based lady who asked me to design this cosy also asked me if I could make a herring girl carrying a basket with herring in, like the statue in Stornoway. Because the herring girls would be so alike, it makes sense to keep the main cosy the same and have one with a basket and one with a barrel. Two designs in one pattern.

I don't foresee any problems designing this tea cosy and I think she will turn out to be really lovely and a fitting tribute to the gutter girls who worked so hard preserving herrings.






Tags: Shetland