DESIGNING A NEW SILK AT MACCLESFIELD SILK MILK
Beatrice Uprichard and Ruth Farris, in collaboration with Macclesfield Silk Museum, designed and produced the first new jacquard silk design, using traditional card cutting and weaving machinery, since the Victorian mill closed in 1981. They are both weaving students at Manchester School of Art, and decided to attempt this project following a period of volunteering restoring the jacquard looms.
Image: Bea and Ruth Lacing Cards, new jacquard woven fabric design in Paradise Mill 2023. Photo Credit Daniel Hearn. Macclesfield Silk Museum. Image above: Final silk design.
Paradise Mill, Macclesfield, was built to house cotton and silk manufacture in 1862. The cotton industry in Macclesfield declined and the silk industry began to flourish, and by 1891 the Mill was used exclusively for silk production. In 1912 the Mill was bought by Arthur Cartwright and Percy Sheldon, who installed secondhand Victorian handlooms and Jacquard machines, now Europe’s largest known collection of Jacquard silk handlooms in their original setting. In 1981 the Mill closed and was reopened in 1984 as a museum, and it is Macclesfield Silk Museum’s hope that the looms can be restored to working order and the Mill become a working museum.
Image: Bea and Ruth's Design on card cutter, new jacquard woven fabric design in Paradise Mill 2023. Photo Credit Daniel Hearn. Macclesfield Silk Museum.
As textile students specialising in weaving, this project has been a dream come true for Beatrice and Ruth. Having fallen in love with the Mill during their volunteer work with Dan and Trish from the restoration team, they were inspired to attempt to design and execute a new traditional silk design for the recently restored Jacquard loom at the mill. It was an ambitious idea, a new design not having been attempted on the Jacquard looms since 1985, but Beatrice and Ruth also felt that it would be mutually beneficial whether they succeeded or failed in what Dan calls ‘experimental archaeology’, by proving the possibilities of the restored machinery and preserving the skills involved in operating and interacting with it.
Image: Bea weaving on jacquard handloom, new jacquard woven fabric design In Paradise Mill 2023. Photo Credit Daniel Hearn. Macclesfield Silk Museum.
The project began with a two week design period involving two days exploring the Mill and its archives, looking at old punch card sets, and analysing the old 20th century silk designs. Their final design is primarily influenced by these historic samples with a hint of their own modern design taste. Having tested the design on a modern computerised Jacquard loom at Manchester School of Art, they knew it was structurally balanced, and after drawing the design on the appropriate 24 blocks of 8 point paper in red and white to indicate lifts in the warp, they were ready to make our set of 192 punch cards, each punch card indicating one line of the design. The card cutting process was completed over 5 full days using the original 19th century Devoge piano card cutting machine that was used when the Mill was operational, and involved a lot of problem solving in order to make sure the punch cards could be read properly by the Jacquard mechanism on the loom. The act of Jacquard card cutting on these old machines was described by John Holdsworth and Company Ltd in Halifax as being like ‘typing on keyboard, held upside-down, whilst riding a bicycle and blind-folded’, to which Beatrice and Ruth can both attest. Once they had corrected any errors and ordered the punch cards, they laced them together on the original lacing frame and stitched in the metal rods which carry the set on the loom.
Image: Card set on loom, new jacquard woven fabric design in Paradise Mill 2023. Photo Credit Daniel Hearn. Macclesfield Silk Museum.
Once they had installed the set onto the loom and woven their first few rows of the pattern, which was an absolutely magical moment, they proceeded to take it in turns to weave for two full days until they had about a metre of fabric - enough to cut off the loom. Described as ‘extreme weaving’ by Dan and Trish, weaving on an old Jacquard loom is much more difficult than weaving on the looms Beatrice and Ruth were used to. The process involves treadling with a very specific level of force, using the picking stick to operate the fly shuttle again with considered force, and using the sley to beat up each pick, all the while paying close attention to the quality of the silk and the performance of the loom.
Image: final silk design.
This brief description doesn’t quite illustrate the complexity of these processes, nor the significance of the project for Beatrice and Ruth. They put a lot of time and energy into this labour of love, and the positive reception the project has had from those working at the Mill, visitors at the Mill, and their tutors and peers at Manchester School of Art has been overwhelming. It is also important to note that they couldn’t have achieved anything without the facilitation and mentorship from Dan and Trish at the Mill, who have encouraged and helped them at every stage and share Beatrice and Ruth’s enthusiasm for the project; they have said they are ‘thrilled’ by what Beatrice and Ruth have achieved, and that they believe they have ‘set a standard, showing what is actually possible’. Most importantly Beatrice and Ruth are so glad that they could help to sustain the heritage work Dan and Trish are conducting in Paradise Mill, by enriching guided tours - one of the visitors on the tour described their work as ‘living history’ - and by demonstrating the Mill’s potential. Whilst the Mill can be considered a relic of the past, they want to show that it can also be brought into the realm of the future - the future of localised, ethical goods production, of collaboration between the Mill, Manchester School of Art and local artists, and of interaction with and appreciation of heritage craft skills.
Image: final silk design.
Text courtesy of Beatrice Uprichard
Find out more:
www.thesilkmuseum.co.uk
@www.instagram.com/silkmuseummacc
Image: Bea and Ruth Lacing Cards, new jacquard woven fabric design in Paradise Mill 2023. Photo Credit Daniel Hearn. Macclesfield Silk Museum. Image above: Final silk design.
Paradise Mill, Macclesfield, was built to house cotton and silk manufacture in 1862. The cotton industry in Macclesfield declined and the silk industry began to flourish, and by 1891 the Mill was used exclusively for silk production. In 1912 the Mill was bought by Arthur Cartwright and Percy Sheldon, who installed secondhand Victorian handlooms and Jacquard machines, now Europe’s largest known collection of Jacquard silk handlooms in their original setting. In 1981 the Mill closed and was reopened in 1984 as a museum, and it is Macclesfield Silk Museum’s hope that the looms can be restored to working order and the Mill become a working museum.
Image: Bea and Ruth's Design on card cutter, new jacquard woven fabric design in Paradise Mill 2023. Photo Credit Daniel Hearn. Macclesfield Silk Museum.
As textile students specialising in weaving, this project has been a dream come true for Beatrice and Ruth. Having fallen in love with the Mill during their volunteer work with Dan and Trish from the restoration team, they were inspired to attempt to design and execute a new traditional silk design for the recently restored Jacquard loom at the mill. It was an ambitious idea, a new design not having been attempted on the Jacquard looms since 1985, but Beatrice and Ruth also felt that it would be mutually beneficial whether they succeeded or failed in what Dan calls ‘experimental archaeology’, by proving the possibilities of the restored machinery and preserving the skills involved in operating and interacting with it.
Image: Bea weaving on jacquard handloom, new jacquard woven fabric design In Paradise Mill 2023. Photo Credit Daniel Hearn. Macclesfield Silk Museum.
The project began with a two week design period involving two days exploring the Mill and its archives, looking at old punch card sets, and analysing the old 20th century silk designs. Their final design is primarily influenced by these historic samples with a hint of their own modern design taste. Having tested the design on a modern computerised Jacquard loom at Manchester School of Art, they knew it was structurally balanced, and after drawing the design on the appropriate 24 blocks of 8 point paper in red and white to indicate lifts in the warp, they were ready to make our set of 192 punch cards, each punch card indicating one line of the design. The card cutting process was completed over 5 full days using the original 19th century Devoge piano card cutting machine that was used when the Mill was operational, and involved a lot of problem solving in order to make sure the punch cards could be read properly by the Jacquard mechanism on the loom. The act of Jacquard card cutting on these old machines was described by John Holdsworth and Company Ltd in Halifax as being like ‘typing on keyboard, held upside-down, whilst riding a bicycle and blind-folded’, to which Beatrice and Ruth can both attest. Once they had corrected any errors and ordered the punch cards, they laced them together on the original lacing frame and stitched in the metal rods which carry the set on the loom.
Image: Card set on loom, new jacquard woven fabric design in Paradise Mill 2023. Photo Credit Daniel Hearn. Macclesfield Silk Museum.
Once they had installed the set onto the loom and woven their first few rows of the pattern, which was an absolutely magical moment, they proceeded to take it in turns to weave for two full days until they had about a metre of fabric - enough to cut off the loom. Described as ‘extreme weaving’ by Dan and Trish, weaving on an old Jacquard loom is much more difficult than weaving on the looms Beatrice and Ruth were used to. The process involves treadling with a very specific level of force, using the picking stick to operate the fly shuttle again with considered force, and using the sley to beat up each pick, all the while paying close attention to the quality of the silk and the performance of the loom.
Image: final silk design.
This brief description doesn’t quite illustrate the complexity of these processes, nor the significance of the project for Beatrice and Ruth. They put a lot of time and energy into this labour of love, and the positive reception the project has had from those working at the Mill, visitors at the Mill, and their tutors and peers at Manchester School of Art has been overwhelming. It is also important to note that they couldn’t have achieved anything without the facilitation and mentorship from Dan and Trish at the Mill, who have encouraged and helped them at every stage and share Beatrice and Ruth’s enthusiasm for the project; they have said they are ‘thrilled’ by what Beatrice and Ruth have achieved, and that they believe they have ‘set a standard, showing what is actually possible’. Most importantly Beatrice and Ruth are so glad that they could help to sustain the heritage work Dan and Trish are conducting in Paradise Mill, by enriching guided tours - one of the visitors on the tour described their work as ‘living history’ - and by demonstrating the Mill’s potential. Whilst the Mill can be considered a relic of the past, they want to show that it can also be brought into the realm of the future - the future of localised, ethical goods production, of collaboration between the Mill, Manchester School of Art and local artists, and of interaction with and appreciation of heritage craft skills.
Image: final silk design.
Text courtesy of Beatrice Uprichard
Find out more:
www.thesilkmuseum.co.uk
@www.instagram.com/silkmuseummacc