Uncovering Carlisle’s Textile Revolution: Upperby School

As part of exploring pattern design, this week 23rd January we viewed pictures taken on a recent visit by our artist to Carlisle Archive Centre . Carlisle Archive Centre   Carlisle Archive Centre is based at Lady Gilford’s House, Petteril Bank Road, Carlisle. It holds many local documents dating back to the 12 th Century to the present day – many donated before being lost forever. Fortunately several pattern books from Ferguson Bros. had been saved from destruction and donated to the Archive. Ferguson Bros. Ltd. were textile manufacturers and printers, at Holme Head Works, Denton Holme, Carlisle from 1824 until they closed in 1991. Japanese inspired Arabian inspired We saw black and white prints of pattern design and also examples of patterns which had been printed several times in different colour ways. We were also able to see and handle a sample of fabric from Morton Sundour – who were printmakers in Carlisle, and developed a form of prin

This week, the 16 th January, we looked at the work of Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954).  He was born in France. He studied to become a lawyer but became an artist at age of 23, after his mother encouraged him to paint when he was recovering from an illness.  He used lots of pattern in his paintings, inspired by patterned fabrics he collected from different places from his world travels. We looked at several examples of his work throughout his five decade career and discussed how his art progressed from representational to abstract and how he took inspiration from other artists, such as Van Gogh and Seurat.  We also talked about how when he was unable to paint he was able to adapt how he worked when restricted by old age and illness. His paintings were colourful and full of energy. However later in his life when he became ill and used a wheelchair, he invented a new art form – paper cuts – he called this ‘ drawing with scissors’ which he arranged into attractive composition

Year 4 this term are learning about Carlisle’s Textile Barons, who were they and what they achieved? On Wednesday 9 th January, we reviewed what we had learned last term about our local weaving industry in the 19 th Century, how this developed and grew and the living and working conditions of those involved, especially the weavers, many of whom lived locally in Upperby. This term we shall be learning about the history and development of Stead McAlpin Printworks based in Cummersdale and Linton Tweeds, tweed fabric and yarn manufacturers in Carlisle. We started by investigating shape – an essential element of art and especially design. Building on our skills of paper cutting and folding, we experimented with folding geometric pieces of coloured paper, such as square, rectangle, circle. By folding edge to edge, diagonally and vertically, then cutting sections away, we produced random abstract shapes – some of us used our new weaving skills to weave thr