Uncovering Carlisle’s Textile Revolution: Upperby School

Back after our Easter holidays, we are now into our final term of the project and took the opportunity to look through our sketchbooks and review what we have learned since last September. We know that had we lived in Carlisle 150 years ago, it is likely our family would have worked in either the Mills or the Print Works and as a child, we could have been working in the factories too. We tried to imagine what life would have been like for us.  Our living conditions would have been basic, probably sharing a bed with a brother or sister.  We may have had only one set of clothes, possibly something smart for Sunday.  We closed our eyes and imagined ourselves in those clothes and how we would have felt. Katie then showed us how to draw a face with correct proportions and how we could change these to show expressions and emotions. We started with a circle, then used 'construction lines' or guide lines to indicate where our features should go on our face - it sur...

Curved tessellation As part of our learning about pattern design, today we looked tessellation in more detail, what it is - where we find it in everyday life and in nature and also looking at an artist from history who used tessellation to produce amazing works of art - Escher. Jac gave a brief talk - how we can see tessellated pattern all around us, examples of man made and nature tessellation and told us about Escher, who he was and what inspired him.  We found out that Escher was fascinated with tessellation - how shapes related to each other without any gaps. Escher was inspired by Moorish tessellations he had seen in 1936  Escher experimented with interlocking shapes, many containing animals, birds, fish and reptiles. We covered many examples in the talk but in particular focused on this example, showing many creatures.  There are many creatures hiding but we managed to find most! We looked at many examples and it was interesting to s...

Today Irene Steele, who works as a Designer at Linton Tweeds came to school to tell us about her role as a designer. She told us that Linton Tweeds for more than 100 years have been producing fabrics of the highest quality for fashion houses around the world. All of these fabrics are still designed and woven on site at their mill on Shaddongate, Carlisle – just as when we were first founded by William Linton in 1912.  Linton Tweeds brand works with fashion houses in London, Milan and New York, in markets across Europe, North America and Asia, and with luxury brands such as Burberry and Chanel – who they have worked alongside ever since William Linton was introduced to Coco Chanel way back in 1924. Running 16 hours a day,  14 looms create elaborate, beautiful tweed using a variety of techniques and yarns. The video was shot by our artist during a recent visit to Linton Tweeds, showing the speed of the loom and the noise! A third of each cloth pro...