Special look for collecting sheet

It’s a special collecting sheet for next year’s Lerwick Up-Helly-A’ jarl-elect Lyall Gair, reflecting his job as a joiner.

The budding Viking visited The Shetland Times office at Gremista with committee secretary Calum Grains on Monday, as part of their exercise to collect funds in aid of next year’s festival.

Lyall showed off the new collecting sheet and the unusual picture to accompany it. For the first time it’s a wooden engraving, executed by Up-Helly-A’ supremo enthusiast Erik Moncrieff.

When asked about the picture, depicting a galley in stormy seas, Lyall was quick to credit Erik for the fetching artwork, produced with the latest laser technology.

The engraving, using ash and dark oak and including gold leaf was, he said, done in a “old school style harking back to the 1920s and 1930s”. It is in the tradition of Jack Moar and Tom Henry.

“Wood was the perfect choice,” he said, considering his experience as a joiner and galley foreman.

He sourced various pictures for the background and photos of the Up-Helly-A’ galley, finally putting it all together. He darkened the grain of some of the wood and finished it with varnish and speckles of gold leaf which give the image a sparkly effect.

The “old grippy bash in a modernist plot”, Lyall added.

The picture and sheet in its customary case may be inspected by local businesses as the committee drops along on its rounds.