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..........

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