The sculpture was the idea of local resident Stella Carrington, who had been a jute weaver in her early years. She had campaigned that jute workers should be recognised for their contribution to Dundee. She sought funding from Asda who were building a new store locally. The artist Malcolm Robertson describes the work as, ‘A memorial to the hard-working women and children of Dundee's bygone jute industry on which the city's fortunes were founded.' The main figure is based on Stella Carrington, while the girl (based on the grand-daughter of a jute worker) represents the children who were known as 'half-timers' as they had to split their time between school and working in the dangerous conditions of the mills. The text inscribed into the curved corten steel plates quotes a song by Mary Brooksbank and a poem by Ron Hutcheson.