Weaving Silk Stories - research & making - writing the history of silk weaving on paper dresses
"According to Confucius, it was in 2640 B.C. that the Chinese princess Xi Ling Shi was the first to reel a cocoon of silk which, legend also has it, had dropped into her cup of tea. From that historic moment, the Chinese discovered the life cycle of the silk worm and for the next 3000 years were to keep their monopoly of silk."
But the secrets of the art of making of silk did eventually spread to Europe and to Britain as surely as the material itself travelled as part of global trade, not least along the road named after it - the Silk Road. The Silk Road has been said by some to end in Britain. Certainly those involved in the manufacture of silk in Macclesfield have cause to claim that their town is the end point. As we will see throughout the research for this project, in the blog posts that follow, Spitalfields, Whitchurch in Hampshire (as well as Braintree in Essex, Sudbury and other towns and cities) can all claim to be important way markers on the silk map of the UK. I will also be writing a post about silk maps
making
Silk thread is a beautiful, fragile, slender medium with a very long history. You can see below a large bobbin of white silk thread from Whitchurch Silk Mill. This was the first I bought for testing and learning. Having been to visit Whitchurch Silk Mill and seen their looms in operation. I won't be using a free standing loom myself in this project because I won't of course be looking to make silk; my base material is paper, but I will be aiming to learn and practise the technique of weaving as part of the making of many of the pieces in the Weaving Silk Stories collection. Though I an making paper textiles for this project I will be integrating silk thread.
Every garment made by The House of Embroidered Paper involves experimentation. This time that would mean learning various weaving techniques and, as the only way to figure out what is going to work is to get going, so experiments integrating paper and thread together into a single piece of weaving became the start. But a rough wooden weaving frame over which to stretch such fine warp threads (to learn various weaving related terms please click here) wasn't going to work. You can see the process of warping on an industrial scale (when Whitchurch Silk Mill did some for Paradise Mill, Macclesfield) here. But I quickly realised that though industrial looms are threaded up with single lengths of this very fine beautiful thread I would need to use multiples of thread, for strength and speed, if I were going to create something in a timely manner and something that was actually different to simply weaving a piece of silk fabric.
I wanted to create interesting textures and combinations but the wood of my frame caught and broke the thread. Then I discovered something much simpler. The idea of using a piece of cardboard as my loom. This fit my material theme better and I could cut as many or few slots as I needed, where I needed them, along the length of either edge of the card. Winding my warp proved smoother this way, the warp threads much less likely to break. The technique is obviously very cheap and accessible also, which would be useful later when I was working with others and so needed more than one loom. I worked out that I needed to place a piece of backing paper inside my loom, behind my weaving, or at least a strip of paper, top and bottom, to attach the weaving to before I cut it loose, thereby safeguarding it and preventing the risk of unravelling. I practised integrating strips of paper of the width I would normally be rolling up as part of the technique of paper quilling. And I was away.
I held the ends together using masking tape to create multiple lines of silk thread to weave with in one go.
I could only produce bunches of threads in shortish lengths of course, using wooden pegs (above) as I was. This left me with lots of (masking taped) tails. But that was perfect for in this manner I discovered I could create fringing. I spotted someone doing something similar, using multiples of a turquoise thread, on this site here and with woven bands either side, bad weaving was something I would come back to.
I couldn't be sure these early test pieces would be useable but in fact they would end up forming one of my first pandora doll scale garments. As anyone who has worked with me will tell you I hate wasting time and I regard learning anything just for the sake of it as a bit of a waste. So if I can I'll learn as part of the process of the creation of a final piece (learning by application!).
Research
Whilst experimenting with how I might use silk thread I began to research silk garments from the various eras I was interested in looking at for this collection. One of my first research visits was to Worthing museum to see some of the dolmans (Victorian era, bustle shaped, women's jackets) that they hold in their collection. But the first I had come across is held at the V&A a white, fur edged creation created by Emile Pingat. It was seeing this piece that created a link in my mind with my white weaving samples. All these influences decided the style of the finished piece that would be made from them. I had also acquired some unspun silk from Whitchurch Silk Mill which I went on to turn into silk paper and thereafter incorporate.
unspun raw silk
Silk weaving
Weaving is very time-consuming and there are many different skills involved in making a single bolt of cloth. Historically the different jobs involved within the weaving trade include:
"Throwsters: twist silks into a thread or yarn. One of the most successful throwsters was the Courtauld family.
Dyers: the yarn has to be dyed before it is woven. One of the most successful dyers was Edward Peck who lived in Spitalfields... when he died in 1736, he left a huge sum of £40,000. Why was he so rich? He knew the secret of the crimson dye used for royalty and aristocracy.
Journeyman weavers: ‘Journeyman’ derives from the French method of payment by the day or ‘journee’ in French. These are the unsung heroes. They toiled at the loom 6 days a week and often for 12 hours a day and earned a paltry sum. When there was no work, there was no money and at times the poverty of the journeyman weaver was heart-breaking.
Master weavers: were wealthy, talented businessmen who attracted clients, employed the pattern designers and journeyman weavers to produce the garment required. They lived in fine houses [in, for example, Fournier Street, Spitalfields, London] and grew exceedingly wealthy.
Pattern designers: designs, patterned or flower’d, were [created] especially for clients. Designers painted their designs on squared paper for the Huguenot weavers to weave. Some were simple and others, hugely complex, taking 4 months to weave one dress."
For more weaving terms please click here
Note: there was a type of class structure underpinning the weaving
community. Journeymen weavers couldn't become master weavers.
They showed the masterpiece they were required to make to prove
their skill, to the guild, but because of the social structure
(unless they married the daughter of a master) there was no
way they could become a master. As a master you needed a bit of
money behind you, it might take 4 years to get a return
on your sales, from the moment you commissioned some silk."
Whilst weaving was done at home it was usually the men doing the weaving, with the women and children of the weaving family doing all the accompanying tasks.
Silk design
There were some particularly renowned silk designers in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. One of the very best known was a woman. Anna Maria Garthwaite.
James Lehman was another famous one and likewise Christopher Baudouin
It's interesting to compare what the French designers were doing: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue-no.-4-summer-2012/a-portrait-of-the-raphael-of-silk-design/
Here you can read what it meant to wear silk in the 17th century: https://beyondthelabel.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/labels/going-in-silks
This continued into the 18th century of course. To see the demand for silk represented amongst the upper classes in Britain during the 18th century you need only cast a glance at oil paintings from the time. The splendid garments being worn mostly have that silken sheen (or velvet gloss, velvet having originally been a silk fabric): https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/category/17th-century/
As part of my research I went to see pieces held in the Royal Ceremonial Dress collection at Hampton Court. These are some of the fragments of a type of silk known as Bizarre
"Textile Fragment c. 1700 Fragment of Bizarre Silk - Dark green satin ground with shadow damask pattern and large-scale brocaded motifs in silver-wrapped and red silk yarns. Shaped piece, both selvedges present Italian or French.ca. 1700-05" - From the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection catalogue text
© Historic Royal Palaces
The silk in this image of a Chasuble https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O353325/chasuble-unknown/ is "...imported (French c. 1707/08). It can be dated by comparison with designs by James Leman from 1707 and 1708" From Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century from the Victoria and Albert Museum edited with an introduction by Clare Browne. It is interesting to compare it with the piece held in the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection.
And from that same visit I made here is an example of embossed velvet:
"Textile Fragment c. 1740 - Mid 1740’s textile of Italian, salmon pink, cut and uncut silk velvet. Original textile presented by the State of Venice to the Sophia, Countess of Granville and was remodelled and worn by Lady Louisa Alexander at Buckingham Palace at Queen Victoria’s Fancy Ball, called the ‘Powder Ball’ June 1845." - From the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection catalogue text
© Historic Royal Palaces
Again to compare, here is a piece from the V&A collection that shows the reverse effect of removing less of the velvet surface: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O13612/velvet-unknown/ The shapes look to me like mulberries, which (because of the trees being linked to the making of silk) I am hunting for represented in fabric design, even if this one is a little early..
Then I saw a wonderful example of knitted silk, made for a King.
"William III waistcoat 1680-1700 - A vest but known better as a waistcoat of red knitted silk. Associated with William III. It was knitted by hand use a knitting frame in stocking stitch. The colour red has significance as historically red was a colour associated with giving warmth and was often used for garments that would be worn near to the skin." From the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection catalogue text
© Historic Royal Palaces
And here are William's stockings.
"Pair of knitted stockings of bright green silk, associated with William III. 3503039 - Shaped stockings with seam along back of calf. Narrow cuff at top with 'W' composed of small holes. Gusset under foot to shape, with point reaching to ankle. Clocks on each side of ankle of simple flower design, stem, leaf either side and petals, with a crown above" - From the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection catalogue text
© Historic Royal Palaces
Silk weaving in Britain
As you can see from the European origins of the silk fragments above the history of silk in Britain always involved trading with other countries, for: a) the raw materials - James I tried to grow mulberry trees in Britain in order to support the rearing of silk worms and therefore every stage of the silk production process but without success; b) the finished item - it should immediately be noted however that embargos quickly became part of the history of British silk.
"As part of protectionist policy in eighteenth-century Britain, imported silks were banned from being sold. Although it is known that bans on imported textiles were widely broken, there have been few systematic studies of the contraband trade in silks...there was no imported silk but imported skills and labour."
To read an article about the smuggling of silk please click here
Britain allowed the incoming of silk makers and of raw materials but restricted the import of finished silk. For a concise history of silk in the UK please see: https://www.cravat-club.com/blogs/news/the-history-of-silk-in-england
I will post shortly images of a silk waistcoat worn by William Wilberforce and more about how parliament and the law had to become involved in this industry. Arguably it's ironic that the history of silk design and manufacture in the UK is tightly interwoven with the history of immigration into the UK, specifically the arrival of Huguenots refugees, concentrated around the end of the 17th century.
"Many of the Huguenots...made Spitalfields their home [and] were weavers by trade. They used handlooms to weave raw silk imported from Italy and brought with them a newly invented technique to give thin silk taffeta a glossy lustre". https://www.mallandain.com/huguenots.htm
It should be noted that silk thread buttons certainly were made in Britain from before this time (the Dorset button celebrated it's 400 year anniversary in 2022) and Flemish migrants were weaving in Britain from the time of Henry VIII. Still though the fact remains that:
"...the English climate is too cold for rearing silkworms..."
Leaving the silk industry that developed in the late Middle Ages little choice but to import raw silk to be able to produce silk goods.
"The art of making silk thread was developed in England by the silk throwsters of London, Leek (Staffordshire), Macclesfield and Congleton (both in Cheshire). The silk thread is reeled off the cocoons in the country of origin and bundled for shipping. When received in England it is thus ready for throwing, which involves five processes - winding, cleaning, spinning, doubling, and lastly the throwing itself which results in a rope-like thread which is both strong and elastic."
The 18th century is of paramount import in this history to read more about The English Silk Industry in the Eighteenth century please click here
Silk Types
In fact silk has many names, according to the exact appearance of the final fabric. Most people will have heard of Satin and Taffeta but some of the more unusual types include: Alamode, Bombazine, Brocade, Tiffany, Tabinet, Ferradine, Grossgrain
Then there is Bizarre silk (demonstrated by the green piece above): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarre_silk For an example of Bizarre silk made up into a dress from 1720 (in brown which I always find a surprisingly popular colour in fashion) https://thedreamstress.com/2019/09/rate-the-dress-1720s-late-baroque-browns/
For a bank of images of silk items please click here: https://ada.silknow.org/
Passementerie
Often made of silk thread to be applied to silk garments items made as part of learning, practising, designing and applying passementerie crafts techniques will be an important part of this project.
"Passementerie (/pæsˈmɛntri/, French pronunciation: [pɑsmɑ̃tri]) or passementarie is the art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings (in French, passements) of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery, colored silk, or beads for clothing or furnishings. Styles of passementerie include the tassel, fringes (applied, as opposed to integral), ornamental cords, galloons, pompons, rosettes, and gimps, as well as other forms. Tassels, pompons, and rosettes are point ornaments, and the others are linear ornaments. Passementerie worked in white linen thread is the origin of bobbin lace, and passement is an early French word for lace. Today, passementerie is used with clothing, such as the gold braid on military dress uniforms, and for decorating couture clothing and wedding gowns. It is also used in furniture trimming, such as in the Centripetal Spring Armchair of 1849 and in some lampshades, draperies, fringes, and tassels"
Despite all it's beautiful possibilities Passementerie is now on the Red list of Endangered crafts in Britain (similarly silk ribbon production, as I found out during my research at Whitchurch Silk Mill and which I will reference further in my post for the dress titled Looming).
Heritage Crafts is the national charity for traditional heritage crafts. I would like to quote from the Passementerie page of their site because it is very informative, please do visit to read the rest and support their work:
"It is not known quite where or how the crafts of cord-spinning, weaving and tassel-making as we know it today in the trimmings workshop were first practised. The luxury consumption of the English court, and the aristocracy, and the increasing application of luxury textiles in the stately homes of the 17th century onwards, where the quality of interior decoration reached its height, can be seen as the driver for the growth of this particular trade.
When Daniel Marot the French Dutch architect and furniture designer (1661- 1752) worked on Hampton Court Palace he used Faggotted fringe for the State Bed (refurbished by Wendy Cushing in the 1980s) which was originally a design seen on garments. Passementerie became fashionable by following the trends of the rich. It was an expression of wealth.
The industry developed in Spitalfields with the weaving of fabrics and trimmings hence many trimmings skills were passed down. The French and Dutch Huguenots had the skills and used passementerie in the 17th and 18th centuries to adorn the fashion of the day. Weavers would have worked in the attic rooms of Brick lane. With the growth of industrial production and the middle classes in the 19th century production grew in the textile-making centres of the north, such as Manchester, Macclesfield, Leek, Nottingham Coventry and surrounding areas.
The skills in the passementerie workshop comprise dyeing, cord-spinning, weaving and tassel-making, which are co-ordinated to produce mainly bespoke work.
Dyeing: Although usually carried out in independent dye workshops rather than in the passementerie workshop, the dyeing of silk yarn to match the furnishing fabrics on which the trimmings are to be mounted, is integral to the design of the end product.
Cord-spinning: Whereby component parts used in weaving and tassel-making are produced. The cord-spinner produces ropes, cords and gimps which can be immensely complex, and it is this aspect of the craft of passementerie which is most at risk, as the craft can only be learned by watching and following an already skilled craftsman.
Weaving: Bands, braids and fringes of a multiplicity of different formations that are peculiar to this form of work are woven on a ‘trimmings’, ‘ribbon’ or ‘narrow’ loom. Whereas with cloth weaving the attention is on the centre of the fabric between the selvages, with furnishing trimmings the attention is as much on what is happening at the edges, and this can include a variety of types of fringing, inlayed or brocaded centres, or gimpwork where stiffened cords are laid into the weaving to form decorative constructions. So, this has become a hybrid form of weaving quite different to other ‘narrow wares’ and fabric.
Tassel-making: The making of tassels and tassel tie-backs, usually using a wooden mould in the centre and covered with silk or other threads, and with gimps and bullions made by the cord-spinner, and often made to co-ordinate with the woven trimmings. The tassel-maker, like the weaver, attaches handmade ‘hangers’, ‘drops’ and ‘jasmines’." https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/passementerie/
I found it interesting to note that even the dying of the thread was considered part of the passementerie practitioner's craft. Cord-spinning, weaving braid and fringe, tassel making and more will all feature in the Weaving Silk Story collection posts as they are applied to many of the pieces.
Weaving Silk Stories
As part of my last two collections I have looked to tie into the designs of garments details about the lives of real related individuals. This project will be no different. As you will have gathered I am looking to integrate the technique of weaving and the use of silk thread wherever possible, alongside my use of paper in the sculpting of this collection. But as is suggested in the title of the project I want the stories that are tied to this collection to be particularly numerous, and to come as ever from every strata of the societies involved.
Though the inspiration for this collection is the history of silk in the UK that history connects us to many other countries through trade of ideas and designs and the finished product that is a ream of woven silk, as well as the raw materials and even the insects that make it. My research of this history will spread across all of the future posts about each of the pieces. I will also try to detail the related fashion history I'm looking at, including images from related research visits. I will include work in progress images detailing many of the techniques I am learning, and then applying, and finally in 2027 I will be able to add photos of the finished pieces.
Please keep an eye on progress!
Weaving Silk Stories is a new project in partnership with the independent charity Historic Royal Palaces, which is due to launch in 2027.
Paper sponsorship by Duni Global
