The Museum is in a stunning building & began with a room dedicated to Indian printed fabric, for that's where the need for European printing houses began. The clothes wearers of 18th century Europe were desperate for an alternative to the heavy wools, linens & silks that their clothes were made of, so in stepped the East India Company who began importing calico prints from India. Soon there was so much demand that the importing of fabric couldn't meet demand, hence...local printing houses sprung up. One of those was Mulhouse, who in 1746 founded the city's first textile printing works. It didn't take long before Mulhouse & Alsace were established as world leaders in the manufacture & marketing of printed cloth.
The museum took us through the various jobs involved with the printing of fabric, including a display of hand painted designs.
This is where my jaw dropped. Hundreds of wood blocks are stored here! They are carved into pear wood, which dries very hard, like oak.
The display showed us how technology changed production & also the workforce required.
There was a very interesting exhibition on the role of women in the textile industry. As you might imagine, woman were, initially, a disposable cheap labour force who did the menial jobs. No way were women considered capable of designing!!! Thankfully that changed in the late 19th century, when Mulhouse established a training college for girls, with the specific purpose of training them for jobs in the textile trade. One of these students was Marie-Emilie Ebstein, who graduated with honours & had a great future ahead of her, except that she was a Jew & it was WW2. Sadly her days ended in Auschwitz & she never got to see her designs manufactured as fabric. Needless to say I was more than a little moved by this.
I was here to do a day workshop with the wonderful Celine, on woodblock printing & patchwork. We were to print our own fabric, then cut it up & sew it together to a patchwork design that Celine had created.
First we had to choose our woodblocks. Can you imagine how hard that was????? Thankfully we had a restricted selection of maybe 200!
After a demonstration it was time to get on with it. I discovered muscles in my arms & hands that I didn't know I had, and all the time, I was constantly aware of what a privilege it was to be using these very old blocks!
This is my full range of printed fabrics hanging on the clothesline strung up behind that wall of magnificent blocks. I must confess that I actually really like my fabrics just like this & if I was left to my own devices probably wouldn't have cut them up. However, when a tutor has gone to so much trouble to design a project as part of her workshop, I feel it's only polite to see it through.
So, cut & stitch I did! I only managed one small panel before I had to make another mad dash to get my train back to Strasbourg, but I have the rest to complete when I get back to Adelaide.
I must acknowledge that I wouldn't have been able to do this workshop if my daughter (who speaks French) hadn't arranged it for me. The website is limited in it's 'english' section. If you are reading this blog with the intention of visiting Alsace in the future, & this workshop sounds good to you....contact the Museum via email & make it 'attn.; Celine Lachkar' & then proceed in English, as her English is very good.
Also, a little morsel of information I would have liked to have known about earlier; Mulhouse is where DMC embroidery thread is manufactured! Just imagine the colour range one might get here!!
Lucky you, sounds absolutely fabulous.Sue Buxton
ReplyDelete