"Canut" was the term for a weaver in the textile industry in Lyon at the time of the development of the jacquard loom. The Maison is a museum dedicated to the lives and work of these weavers. In one part of the museum is a 150-year-old loom set up to weave brocade. The cloth is being woven face down, as seen in the first photo. The second shows the face of the cloth as it rolls onto a beam. The third shows part of the loom, looking toward the weaver (the guy in the gray T-shirt at far left).
There is one shuttle for the ground (which is itself a patterned weave) and shuttles for each of the colors of the brocade patterning. Since the brocade areas are separated by lots of ground, often there are multiple shuttles for *each* color, to avoid wasting thread in long floats. In this case, there are 7 brocade colors.
The cloth is a recreation of a fabric originally commissioned by an empress for the palace of Fontainebleau. Today's price: 2000 euros per meter, or about $2500 USD.
A wonderful museum, if you're ever in Lyon.
5 comments:
Wow - nice to see it in action. :)
cheers,
Laura
Wow! Fascinating to see. Thanks!
i adored that place!! thanks for bringing it back to me
Do they weave standing up??
Oh yes, I loved visiting Lyon. Aren't the streets and buildings just fantastic? Did you see the textile museum and all the scale models of looms?
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