Caurnie soap event

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As part of artist Trevor Cromie’s work for Trails and Tales, we held a Caurnie Soap event at William patrick library – trevor has been exploring 3 local industries as part of his residency using East Dunbartonshire’s Archives as a source for community collaborations. His link with the very unique Caurnie soaperie will lead to a new collaborative work with Caurnie Soaperie and Alice Mackenzie former chief librarian for Strathkelvin. As part of the evening, Jim Little Caurnie’s owner and Grandson of the founder (also Jim Little), gave a fascinating talk about the history of the soaperie and its development. Jim also put together a challenging – at least for me it was! – scent quiz, with an array of soaps laid out for event participants to try and guess what the specific ingredients were in each individual soap – not easy! The reward was a year’s supply of Caurnie soap and the images show the deserving winner receiving their basket of everything from bog myrtle to nettle to tea tree. Sarah Wilcock who is working with Trails and Tales on the audience development events for Trevor’s forthcoming exhibition at the Lillie Art Gallery put together a fantastic display of images drawn from the archives, giving insight to the rich history of Caurnie Soaperie in Kirkintilloch. It was a great evening and work arising from Trevor’s explorations and collaboration can be seen in August of this year as part of his show, Blackwhitegrey at the Lillie Art gallery.