Uncovering Carlisle’s Textile Revolution: Upperby School

Our fabulour school display showing our printing On on the 27th February, Vega Brennan a local artist and printmaker joined us. Vega talked to us about Stead McAlpin's printing processes, showed us a video of a rotary printing machine and explained about the block printing process they used 150 years ago.   She then told us about tessellation, what it is and how it can be used in the print making process. Using precut shapes Vega brought, we chose shapes and explored how these could be placed together - tessellated -  without any gaps to form a pattern.  We learned that one shape - the pentagon  - would not tessellate and could not be used to make a pattern without any gaps. Once we had decided on our pattern, we drew out our design on paper, then transferred this to the fabric. We then chose matching acrylic blocks Vega had prepared for us, onto which we added our own individual design using sticky back foam. We w...

Today we set out to explore monoprinting - this is a form of printmaking that can only be made once, unlike most forms of printmaking which allows for multiples - block printing is an example of this - used by the printers at Stead McAlpin's 150 years ago -  where a pattern carved into a wooden block - and then repeatedly printed to make a continuous pattern. Before we starting printing, Jac, our artist showed us an example of printed fabric from Ferguson's Print Works - which Chloe held up for us to see. Ferguson's were textile manufacturers and printers at Holme Head from 1824 to 1991.  This had been printed for Liberty of London and was called ' Fish and Ships '. We all had a close look at how the pattern had been created by using simple shapes and discussed how this had been printed on a rotary printer similar to the video we had watched  ..... ...each colour had been printed separately by a roller and we could tell by the guide that runs down ...

Before our visit after half term of Vega Brennan, a professional print maker from Linden Print Studio, we spent time exploring a few different ways of printing.  Using the impressed foam we had prepared, then with different objects - sponges, potato prints, stamping, pieces of card.......... It was all about experimenting and see what types of marks we could make.....great fun!  Foam printing

Stead McAlpin, Cummersdale This week 30th January,  Ros Downing was due to visit us and give us a talk on the history of Stead McAlpin printworks in Cummersdale but unfortunately had to cancel due to illness. Although not in as much detail as Ros could have told us, we looked at the history of Stead McAlpin who have had a factory at Cummersdale since 1835 and is the only surviving print works in Carlisle and the most versatile print maker in the UK, using rotary, flatbed and digital printmaking. We talked about what life would have been like as a print worker in the 1800s.  The factory would have been unheated, the only light coming from candles stuck into blocks of wood hanging from the roof.  Many bleaching and dyeing processes involved harsh chemicals and unpleasant substances - lime and dung for instance.  Working conditions would have been harsh for unskilled workers and a long apprenticeship would have to be served to become a printer, who were the el...