Building a yardage screen printing table.

We’re building a yardage screen printing table! Well in truth my husband Ari is building the new print table, and I’m his gofer. It’s a massive undertaking and I imagine that most people when looking at that pile of square metal section would quickly become overwhelmed and somewhat discouraged, but not Ari. So two weeks ago the steel along with the wooden panels for the printing surface and the spacious, very much needed, ‘super shelf’ arrived. Since then we’ve scrubbed and cleaned the steel stock and he’s cut and welded it, this has gone on for days. But after some true grit, the legs are now complete and we are ready to assemble the rest of the table. They have wonderful adjustable feet to ensure that we can level the table easily on our original French ceramic tile floors and in the process he’s also readied the metal for painting. Here are a few pictures from the construction thus far. Next week: assembling the table and welding it into its new permanent spot in the workshop.

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A surprisingly small pile of steel. Each piece is 6 metres long and with a very well thought out design and cutting list, very little wastage. Those right angles on top are the registration bars and I’m so pleased to find that they are perfectly straight:

You can see by the red gloves that there is a great deal of oil and fine metal particles on the surface. You can weld with this on the surface but it was easier to clean and do the first stages in painting prep now rather than as a table. A few hours and we had them to a point where you could handle them with bare hands and not get covered in oil:

Fine steel particles in the bottom of the bucket after cleaning make lovely patterns textures:

Cutting:

For welding, Aris made a jig that holds the leg sections in place and at correct angles. He would then spot weld to secure them and finish off the welding out of the jig. There are nine of these sections:

Cut and brushed steel in the jig ready for welding:

Welding, so much fun to photograph. I had to take these shots with my eyes closed to protect them from UV overexposure:

Making the female component for the adjustable feet using the drill press:

The female component on the bottom of the legs ready for welding:

Making the feet. Aris welded various washers and nuts onto the bottom of threaded rod to make the adjustable feet:

After the weld and ready for cleaning and polishing:

Polished and unpolished feet:

The finished foot, these screw into the bottom of the legs and can be adjusted where need be:

I’ll be back next week with an update on our progress! I hope that everyone enjoys their weekend!

Manufacture des Flandres – Musée du Jacquard – Jacquard Museum

For me, this place is simply awesome. The Musée du Jacquard in Roubaix, Northern France, is an exceptionally comprehensive museum. There were three of us in our mini tour group and we had our own guide who although not a weaver herself was wonderfully personable, knowledgeable and technically proficient in the use of the machines. The remarkable point of interest of this museum is that all of the looms are in working order and each loom is turned on and operated before your very eyes. The looms are arranged in chronological order so that you can also see the development of the Jacquard loom and the implementation of technology over the centuries. You start your tour with a short introduction to fibre, move onto earlier, simpler looms and work your way through to modern mechanised machines with rapier attachments, automated cutting and full width repeats.

The museum is situated in an old mill in Roubaix. This town has a very long and tumultuous history. Spanning several hundred years the turn of events has been extraordinary: multiple wars, occupation, abolition, fierce, fierce local competition with Lille, and an astounding population growth that rivaled most cities and towns in the rest of Europe. This museum is not to be missed if you are ‘into’ textiles or have an interest in industrial history. The sound of these looms throwing the weft thread, beating the cloth and changing the shafts is invigorating. It is an impressive collection and I’m thrilled that they are maintaining the looms and the history of Jacquard development.

The Jacquard loom was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, the invention is the process and mechanised attachment that controls the loom. It made possible the process of weaving complex patterned cloth like damask and brocade. On a Jacquard loom there are hundreds and thousands of hooks that are attached to strings that hang from the overhead jacquard attachment. Early on, one hook held a number of warp ends (threads) resulting in a number of repeats across the width of the cloth. As technology improved they were able to have a single warp end per hook which resulted in an unrepeated image from selvedge to selvedge. A series of punched cards control these hooks by telling the mechanical head which hooks to lift or lower. Due to the sheer number of warp threads running through the loom it was very difficult to thread the loom but with the new card system, it only needed to be threaded once. If a different pattern was desired, the pattern cards were changed. When the warp ran out or a different coloured warp was required, the new threads were simply tied onto the threads already running through the loom. The invention of Jacquard dramatically increased the creative possibilities for decorative design.

If you are unfamiliar with traditional weaving, and would like to read on please see the Wikipedia entry on weaving and Jacquard weaving.

This post is very long with many images but I thought it best to include all of the photos for those of you who have a deep passion for textiles and weaving. Enjoy!

A partial view of the museum, an early Jacquard loom in the centre. Made of mostly wood with some metal parts it represents true textile innovation:

Beautifully shaped moving metal parts on a warper (a large devise used for measuring and applying even tension to the warp):

A pattern card puncher. This machine is beautiful:

A pattern card, each row represents one line in the pattern. Many cards are stitched together to create the full repeat:

The complicated pattern card punching machine:

The punched patterns, hundreds of these cards are needed to weave each textile pattern:

A dobby loom, well worked over the centuries:

Details of the dobby loom:

A Jacquard loom:

A Jacquard loom:

A Jacquard loom:

Cloth detail from loom:

A shuttle-less rapier loom, an alternate method for weaving the weft thread. The rapier system can be used on both Jacquard and dobby looms:

A Jacquard loom:

An extremely complex band or ribbon loom operated by a Jacquard attachment. An incredible machine, breathtaking:

Each ribbon or band can have a different coloured warp and multiple coloured weft threads but with the same pattern. This loom can weave 12 ribbons simultaneously:

A pile rug on a vertical tapestry loom:

A unique tapestry loom with different types of tapestry and pile carpets on show:

Small sweet gestures …

This morning on the way to the post office we noticed that one of our neighbours roof tiles had come free leaving a gaping hole is his old barn. Inside this barn are hanging thousands of onions from the summer harvest, a leak could have been devastating to his curing crop. He is 85 years old our neighbour, and upon return of the run-away tile asked Aris if he would mind climbing up through the rafters to re-set it. In return for this tiny deed he handed over a small paper bag with four fresh eggs inside. These moments are precious, nothing could be warmer than the sharing of fresh produce, sweet barter! I hope you all have a great week …

Roulez Carrosses – The carriages of the Château de Versailles

On show at the Museum of fine arts in Arras until the 10th of November 2013 is a outstanding exhibition of the carriages and coaches of the Royal court of the Chateau of Versailles. Ten years ago, the carriage museum at Versailles (Musée des Carrosses de Versailles) was closed to the public with this occasion being the first that the royal coaches of Versailles have been loaned out for exhibition. There are only seven coaches on display but they are exquisite examples of the wealth and craftsmanship invested in these opulent vehicles. Used for a number of royal occasions, coronations, marriages, christenings and funerals, they would have been a marvelous site to see on route. Charles the 10th’s extraordinary coronation vehicle is covered entirely in gold. Rich, opulent and splendid it is a breathtaking experience walking into the room that houses it. And the funeral coach of Louis 18th would have been an overwhelming sight, a huge black and ominous carriage carrying the coffin and body of the King, laden with silk and gold drawn by eight heavily ornamented black horses.

Accompanying the coaches there are a number of wonderful works of art and a sensational collection of sleds. Sledding was introduced to the Versailles court in the late 17th Century, a past time inspired by Nordic Royals. Members of the court would race around the Grand canal, iced over during the winter or on the roads and paths covered with snow in the garden and park of Versailles. I loved the floor to ceiling photographic/artwork installations used to illustrate the mood throughout the exhibition. I’ve seen this technique used quite extensively throughout France and Belgium and it always works very well.

A very good film in the final room, also on a grand scale with the screen running floor to ceiling, documents the evolution of carriage suspension in a constant effort to solve issues of comfort, going far beyond padded and sprung interior furniture, paving the way for modern vehicles.

It is a unique experience to see these carriages and one that I suspect may not come around too often. This exhibition is in fact the first exhibition of its kind ever in France. In a National effort to revitalise the North of France and decentralise culture, the Roulez Carrosses is a wonderful opportunity that you shouldn’t miss if you are traveling near by. If not, I hope that you enjoy the photographs that I have taken and that they give you a good sense of this brilliant exhibition.

A striking sculpture by Xavier Veilhan at the entry to the Museum of fine arts in Arras:

There are four halls in the palace, running every side of the enclosed courtyard The still and empty halls gives one a lovely opportunity to imagine those who’ve wandered these floors in the past, how they dressed and how they would ponder and reflect as the walked the long distances around the palace:

The immaculate courtyard, I don’t think that I noticed a door along the halls but there must have been:

This coach belonged to the 8 year old son of Louis 16th and Marie-Antoinette, it is miniature in comparison to the other coaches on display;

A Sedan chair:

Towards the end of the seventeenth century the court of Versailles adopted the Nordic pastime of sled racing:

A magical leopard sled, carved in about 1730:

A coach built for the marriage of Napoleon 1st and Marie-Louise, 1810:

The coach used for the baptism of the Duke of Bordeaux in 1821:

The coach of the coronation of Charles the 10th, drawn by eight horses:

The only preserved Royal hearse in France, it is the funeral coach of Louis the 18th:

A coach built in the 1880s by Ehrler, a famous Parisian coach builder, designed for comfort it has an eight-spring suspension system: