There be angels in the weave

The Angels' Share Tartan - The Story in the Threads

Created to honour Scotch whisky, the world‑renowned spirit of Scotland.

The tartan was designed to carry the warmth of the spirit — amber, gold, and the deep tones of oak — but, more than that, I created it to hold a presence: the Angels’ Share — the portion of whisky, often said to be around 2%, that quietly evaporates through the cask as it matures.

Whisky folk have long spoken of that loss with a kind of reverence. Here, that reverence is not just told; I have tried to weave it into the cloth itself — so the angels are not only in the story of the spirit, but hinted at in the very geometry of the sett.

If you look closely, you might find more than colour: there is a suggestion of wings, of light, of something quietly watching over the dram. The angels are not an afterthought — they were part of the pattern from the first thread.

Two thoughts that shaped the design

If truth be told, I was first inspired to create this tartan after enjoying just a few wee drams — a fact, yes indeed! 😊 As I sat thinking about how it should come together, two distinct thoughts stayed with me:

The way whisky catches and holds the light.
And the quieter idea — that the angels might be present in the weave itself.

1) The way whisky holds the light

The colour of whisky in the bottle — the way it moves and glows in the glass — was the starting point. Refracted light, shifting and shimmering, became the first pivot in the sett. As I worked (with a growing, almost ethereal sense of things), it began to feel like a stained-glass window: rich, luminous, and full of story — as if the dram itself were casting its own light into the weave.

2) The angels in the weave

The second thought was more subtle: an impression of an ethereal glow — the light of the angels. As the geometry evolved, soft forms started to suggest wings within the sett itself. That was the moment the tartan really found its heart for me: the sense that the angels do not simply take their share and disappear, but remain present — hinted at in the pattern, their story held in the cloth.

“The Angels’ Share is not only measured in vapour; in this design, it is also measured in threads.”

From then on, every colour choice and every line in the sett was made with the angels in mind: where they touch the whisky, where they pass through the casks, and where they might — just for a moment — be seen.

The colours

Seven colours run through this tartan, and each one carries weight. The number seven has long been linked with completeness, which felt exactly right for this story — a story that moves from earth and grain, through flame and oak, to spirit and angels.

Blue

An icy blue at the first pivot, symbolising pure Scottish water.

The foundation of every dram — and one of the three core ingredients in Scotch. In the story of the tartan, this is where the journey begins: the cold clarity that everything else grows from.

Indigo

A deep, smouldering hue — the heat of the still.

It calls to mind coal-fired tradition, flame, and the elemental energy that drives distillation. Indigo anchors the darker tones in the sett, a reminder that without heat, there is no spirit for the angels to claim.

Brown

Rich and aged, symbolising the oak cask.

It also nods, quietly, to copper — the shining metal of the stills. Brown forms a structural backbone in the sett, evoking containment, maturation, and time: the long, patient years during which the whisky deepens and the angels continue to take their share.

Smoke & earth tones

Between blue, indigo, and brown.

Together they suggest smoke, malted barley, and the earthy pull of peat — the ground itself lending character to the dram. In the cloth, these tones bridge the human work of malting and firing with the quieter, unseen work of time and evaporation.

Amber

At the second pivot, forty threads of amber represent the whisky itself.

40% ABV is the legal minimum strength for Scotch whisky, and that number is woven deliberately into the geometry.

The amber is not set directly against the brown of the cask. Instead, it is edged first by a golden stripe for barley, then by a lighter, almost whispered white — the presence of the angels — tracing the journey from grain to spirit, with something luminous carried through the weave.

40 amber threads + 60 structural threads = 100, a quiet nod to the full measure of the dram, even as a small part of it is always destined to rise away.

Ochre

A narrow ochre stripe stands for yeast — essential to fermentation.

More subtly, two fine ochre lines alternate through the brown field.

Those twin lines represent the yearly evaporation — the Angels’ Share — making an invisible process visible, a quiet tribute to what rises away as the whisky matures in oak. For me, they are a reminder that as the casks rest in the warehouse gloom, the angels are still at work inside the story.

Yellow

Golden yellow signifies ripened barley — the harvest of the land.

The grain that begins the whole journey. Placed alongside amber, ochre, and brown, it completes the warm spectrum that defines both the drink and the cloth — earth and sun, cask and spirit, all sharing the same field of colour.

White — the angels in the weave

White threads carry the presence of the angels through the cloth.

These white threads represent the angels themselves, bringing a luminous clarity into the sett. They run alongside the warmer tones as a fine, bright counterpoint — the part of the story that cannot be poured into a glass.

This stripe is not merely decorative. It carries the idea made visible: a glimmer within the structure — like the fleeting sparkle on the surface of a dram, or that sense of something quietly sacred in the background of the craft. In the weave, the angels are not only remembered — they are revealed, their share forever part of the pattern.

**Known traditionally as Uisge Beatha in Gaelic, and tracing its roots to the Latin Aqua Vitae — the "Water of Life" — Scotch whisky carries a heritage of story, spirit, and craft.**

This tartan is my own small tribute to that heritage — and to the angels who watch over the casks, and now, find a home in the weave, watching over the cloth.