Uncovering Carlisle’s Textile Revolution: Upperby School

On our second session working on our individual pieces, we continued to add more layers - either printed or painted, then once dried, we could add more detail with fabric pens and include writing. A hive of industry! Great example of pattern making Some prints were successful, some were not - we learned when it did not go as we expected and if we decided we could do better, it was important that we could start again.  This week, we all finished our pieces, some of us had more than one so we could decide which to include in the big  banner. They all look very colourful and we cannot wait to see them all together. These are just a few examples of the many colourful pieces  - well done everyone Pattern, mill architecture and weaving - fabulous!

Our two main large banners will be made up of approximately 30 printed pieces for each class and using a tessellated brick design will symbolize our journey in building our knowledge of the history of our local textile heritage. Using our notes and drawings from looking through our sketchbooks and our blog last week, we started to think about what we could include on our individual piece which was our decision. It needs to be bold, bright and striking as it will be seen from a distance   We will use a combination of techniques to achieve this. We started by adding blocks of colour - some made by printing and others by painting.  A really good print using impressed polystyrene tile We masked off areas then used fabric paint to paint blocks of bright colour. Some engraved textile inspired drawings into foam and printed onto the fabric. Over the next few weeks we shall be adding more detail.  We aim to have two or three pieces from which w

This week we switched our design emphasis from our own identity to what we have learned over the last school year about the history of the textile industries in Carlisle. For our research, we visited our blog to remind ourselves what we had achieved and made notes or drawings of what we may like to include in our design. We won't use everything but will have plenty to choose from.

Carlisle Cotton Spinner's Banner - Tullie House Museum We shall be designing and making two banners, one for each class for display in Carlisle Library and today Jac and Katie told us about banners. We learned that banners are a form of communication.  Whether it is today or 150 years ago, groups or organisations with a marching tradition have made banners to identify themselves and what they stand for. Stephen White, historian from Carlisle Library had told us that before 1832 being a member of a trade society and meeting together was illegal.  Those that did - the Chartists - all had banners to identify who they were and what they stood for.  These may have started as a small wall hanging then sewn onto a bigger piece of material, then painted.  Thousands of Chartists banners were made yet none survive. These banners can contain a lot of information and can be 'read' by historians in much the same way as documents. We then went onto look in more deta