Justin sent some pictures of the loom he’ll likely use to weave the silk lining. Right now this loom is holding some reproduction Calimanco, a worsted, satin woven wool textile produced mostly in Norwich, England in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century.

Kate and I used all natural dyes to obtain the brilliant shades that become that much brighter after the cloth is finished by hot pressing in the calendaring press.

Here’s a link to a video on youtube of a Scottish woolen mill which includes someone making a warp which might help to explain the process.

It’s also a great example of people maintaining traditional workways and their local heritage. http://youtube.com/watch?v=8w4O1pSltcY This aspect of the work is the most important one to me in what I do at Plimoth Plantation and at Eaton Hill.

Tonight I have more pictures of the blue silk lining, but right now the lining is still threads. Very fine threads, and lots of them. The first picture is “picking the cross.”

The second is of Justin putting the cross on the pegs of the warping board. Justin explained the importance of the cross, and maintaining it, in a previous post.

Justin suggested that I post a copy of the paintings of the serge (kind of cloth) industry in Leiden “which are my all time favorites of textile production (and) show a fellow warping with a horizontal scarn behind the woman spinning.” These paintings are in the collection of the Lakenhal Museum in Leiden, the Netherlands. I did look to see if I could find any online, but had no luck. Posting copies of things not in the public domain zips you right to a lower circle of licensing-and-permission hell; I’m not going there. I’ll ask Justin if he can refer us to a print copy, if so I’ll post that information.

These are Justin’s thoughts about weaving this way:

This process is the same way that weavers have been making warps since the 17th century. Producing cloth using these traditional methods is a lot of why I’m interested in textiles. Going through the same steps using the same tools as all of the people who’ve done it before makes me part of a real and viable tradition, and not part of an exhibition of so called ‘forgotten arts’. This spool was made and used in the 18th or early 19th century by ‘NL’. Although we don’t know who N.L. was, we are continuing to work the same way he did.

I’ve heard similar sentiments from some of the embroiderers and lacers, but this was particularly nicely put. The last two pictures are of the cross on the board and the rest of the warp. Justin takes really nice pictures, in addition to all the other things he does well.

Penny and her mom, Betty, organized a send-off for Shaina which happened Thursday afternoon. Wendy came, and Tricia, and several people from the office. There were white paper wedding bells on the door and iced tea in a big punch bowl. Wendy sent me this note on Thursday night, but due to trouble with my home email I didn’t find it until today:

One of the most wonderful aspects about the the “Jacket Project” are all the individual staff members that those of us who come to stitch or lace have the opportunity to meet and work with. Shaina is one of them and sadly for us is leaving to marry and move on to the next part of her life…. You know the drill – spouse , mortgage bills etc…..

We had the delightful opportunity to send her off today, we greeted her wearing hats and smiles (her wedding invitations suggested that guests wear hats and gloves since it is a Victorian Wedding Celebration) and amid coconut cupcakes, cinnamon scones, lemon curd, decadent chocolate brownies and iced tea we all chatted about weddings and the way life changes.

I marveled again at the things that make us unique, the things that change us, the things that strengthen us and the things that we all have in common…….. The threads that connect us……….. Always have…….. always will!

Wendy

Here’s a picture for today. This kitten was a foundling on the Plantation grounds a couple of months ago. After a thorough search for anyone who might be missing her, we determined she was looking for a family. Shaina decided she’d make the perfect kitten for her new home and named her Izzy.

Izzy’s lounging amid the remains of the party Wendy describes above. (The silver dragees are all that were left of the awesomely delicious vegan coconut cupcakes Penny made.) We’ll miss Izzy around the office, although we won’t so much miss her Jekyll & Hyde mood swings.

Today was Shaina’s last day with the Colonial Wardrobe department. She spent the afternoon spinning.

She and Penny (who figured out today she’s been spinning for 20 years) have been planning for her to try it, but Things kept coming up, as they will. Today Penny got out some wool and a drop spindle and her (Penny’s) wheel, and look what happened!

Shaina didn’t like the spindle too much (they do call it a drop spindle for a reason) but she took to the wheel quickly. She spun some really nice yarn, not even nice for a beginner, but really nice. Now she needs a wheel.

We wish Shaina all the best in her new life, and trust she will come back often, now that she knows the way.

This came from Justin today:

Here’s the latest jacket lining update-

First off is a shot of the scarn holding all of those spools Kate and I have been winding. From here we’re able to warp nine ends at a time, not as many as we would have liked, but the skeins of silk were exceptionally difficult to work with. More on how the scarn works and how the warp is made in a minute.

Here’s Kate winding spools. We made the warp at the barn in Marshfield, Vermont where Kate and Eaton Hill Textiles is based. The ground level of the barn houses Kate’s dye studio where the silk was dyed, and the calendaring press for hot and cold pressing fabrics. Upstairs are a dozen looms and other equipment; antique barn looms, small modern looms for tapes, two warping boards, several scarns, a great wheel, a quill wheel, a dobby loom with a jacquard head for pattern weaving, and too much more to mention.

Ok, back to the warping- Here you can see the warp running on the warping board to the left, and the spools held on the scarn on the right. The width of the board is six feet/two yards, so each horizontal pass adds two yards to the length of the warp. As you can see, the warp makes four passes and runs half a yard down to make the lower cross. Thus, the warp is eight and a half yards long. The jacket will require around six yards of finished cloth so why the extra? Some of this will be lost to the loom, and whatever is left over will be peace of mind. Better too much than too little especially on a project like this!

I’m going to attempt to explain how all of these threads are kept in order and become something useful. The scarn divides the spools into two sets, in our case vertically, left and right. When making a warp, each and every thread needs to be kept in its proper order, and this is done by crossing them while the warp is made. If you look at the picture, you’ll see that the top horizontal beam of the board has two additional pegs. Imagine that we’ve taken a single thread and tied it to the top left peg of the board, where the warp starts. That thread then passes over the top of the first of the two extra pegs, and under the second, before making the four passes down the board. Once at the bottom, the thread loops around the last peg and returns from the bottom back along the four passes to the top. At the two extra pegs, this thread now passes over the top of the second peg and under the bottom of the first peg. These two threads cross now at the pegs and when pulled off the board will stay in just the order they were put on in, since they can’t shift over each other and out of order with the cross in place.

Now, if we were to progress in this manner, I would have to repeat this whole process over 1,100 times to create all of the individual threads needed in the warp. Thankfully, somebody, at least six or seven centuries ago, (probably longer), figured out that you don’t need to go through all of this trouble. By setting multiple spools on a scarn, you can warp multiple ends at the same time. We’re only using nine spools, but you could do as many as 48 with the scarn we are using. In this picture you can see how we pick the cross in all of these ends at once. It starts by splitting the ends vertically with the right arm and then holding that split with the let thumb. Now the right hand picks out every other thread by starting at the top right end. Under the first thread on the right, and picking the left thread, then under the second end down on the right and picking the second thread down on the left, all the way down. In the next picture, every other thread on the left has been picked through every other on the right and pulled to the side.

There are two more posts with pictures from Justin to come over the next couple of days. Thanks, Justin!

Here, as promised, are our summer interns.

The first one is of Lacey signing away her photo rights. Actually, she’s giving me permission to post her photo on the blog. This fall she will be a junior at the University of Mary Washington in Fredricksburg, Virginia. The next picture shows Lacey working on her first project, hand sewing a coif. She’s stitching the casing for the drawstring.

Turns out Emily isn’t the girl she used to be. She added this awesome, and totally topic-appropriate, tattoo. She’s ironing some fabric for a lining for a sailor’s cassock she’s making. Emily will also be a junior this fall, at Bennington College, in Bennington, Vermont.

I’m delighted to welcome Emily back, and to have Lacey with us for the summer. Stay tuned for their projects and progress.

I know I’ve said this often, but there’s so much going on around here I’m not sure if I’m coming or going.

There’s even some actual coming and going going on. Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to our summer interns, who are coming. On Friday we’ll bid farewell to Shaina, who is going.

Shaina’s not only going – going back to western Massachusetts, where her family are – but also going to get married and going to move into a newly purchased house. She’s really got a lot going on.

And we’ve got more roses going on around here than just the embroidered kind. These were made by Shaina from ribbon she got from Tricia. I’ll tell you more about them, but for that you’ll have to check back, oh, in about a month.