#derbysilkmill

“The Interlace Project began in 2017, when I was invited by Derby Museums to design and produce simple weaving looms that could be manufactured in the maker space at The Silk Mill. All the loom designs and instructions for how to use them were made available for free online (click here), and I've also run many public workshops in the basics of weaving using the looms. Inspired by the building's history as a silk spinning mill, I have now designed a large interactive textile sculpture, which is being made in collaboration with museum volunteers. The sculpture consists of nine woven silk moth cocoon shapes that have fibre optic light strands running through them; all being made by museum volunteer Ruth Winterbottom and her team of amazingly skilled volunteer weavers. The pattern of the lights will be programmed by visitors using punch cards (similar to the ones that were used to create weaving patterns on Jacquard looms in the 19th Century), and the colours will be controlled by touching small woven panels, a mixture of different fibres plus rows of conductive metal thread, that have been made by over 100 volunteers during several group workshops.”

Image: An early cardboard mock-up gives an indication of what the installation will look like. ©Toni Buckby

Image: An example of the fabric and metal touch panels that will form the interactive controls for the installation. ©Toni Buckby

What drew you towards wanting to work with Derby Museums and the Museum of Making?

“Two of my key interests as an artist are showing and sharing the processes of making. I love the fact that Derby’s Museum of Making will celebrate manufacturing processes as well as getting people involved through its events, workshops, volunteer programme and maker space. I've met so many brilliant, enthusiastic people over the course of developing The Interlace Project and it's been a real pleasure working with an organisation that has such similar interests.”

Are there any thoughts or feelings you would like Interlace to provoke?

“I think, firstly, I hope visitors to the museum will be delighted by the piece - it's very playful! Secondly, I hope that people will take the time to appreciate the effort and skill of the volunteers who have made the work. I've been genuinely blown away by the quality and creativity of all those who have contributed so far - both the experienced weavers and those who had never woven before getting involved in the project. Everyone should be immensely proud of their work!”

Image: One of the cocoons approaching completion, fibre-optic and organic threads interspersed

Image: An example cocoon with the fibres illuminated. ©Toni Buckby

How will people be able to get involved with the project?

“Visitors to the museum will be able to interact with the sculptural installation by programming the light patterns and colours. Additionally, the online resources (designs and instructions) are available on the projects Instructables site, if people would like to have a go at weaving themselves. Finally, as the interactive woven panels are going to need to be replaced every few months, we are also (hopefully) going to have more workshops in future where people can have a go at weaving their own panel, which will then become (temporally) part of the installation”.

It will be very exciting to see this artwork in action when it takes its place in the Museum of Making, and to see how it will very physically link the first use of Derby’s Silk Mill as a factory with it’s new iteration as the Museum of Making, showcasing our regions industrial heritage and innovative future.

Check back for more posts from Oliver!

Interlace Volunteer Responses

We asked some of our wonderful volunteers about their experience on the Interlace project and here’s what they had to say.

Ruth

We asked Ruth why she decided to start volunteering with Derby Museums: 

‘I enjoy art, heritage and involvement with people and always relished my visits to the Museum.  When we moved into an apartment next to the Silk Mill, it was a no-brainer!’

What about Ruth’s involvement on the Interlace project?:

‘I’ve been working with Toni Buckby to help realise, with a team of local skilled craftspeople, her vision for a textile installation in the new Museum of Making. Toni references the silk cocoon and weaving in her computer-controlled light display.’

Ruth shared what she has got from being involved in the Interlace project:

‘It has been a pleasure and rare privilege to be part of such a professional textile project!  I’ve revisited old skills, learned new ones and interacted with lovely people, not least Toni herself.  She is a wonderful artist and generous person. It’s humbling to be part of the start of a new Museum’s journey.’

Barbara

Barbara responded to a Derby Museums call out asking for volunteers for a weaving project; she said:

‘Weaving sounded right up my street! I love designing and making things particularly with textiles of all types.’

Just before the lockdown Barbara was able to take home a piece of the project to work on:

‘It took many hours of peaceful meditative activity which was marvellous occupation in the circumstances that was very good for me; also providing a topic of conversation with friends and family that was positive and different from the constant Covid coverage and shared anxious feelings of being separated from much loved and familiar people and activities’.

Hazel

Hazel met volunteer project coordinator Ruth at a Derbyshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers meeting where Ruth presented Toni Buckby’s concept:

‘I jumped at the chance [to be involved] - what a great idea and to be part of the museum redevelopment.’

Hazel has been weaving one of the cocoons:

‘This was something new for me and a bit of a challenge, but after over 60 hours of weaving I’m really pleased with the results [and have got] a huge sense of satisfaction from the weaving process and immense pride in what I’ve achieved. I can’t wait to see it installed.’

Sandra

Sandra joined as a volunteer through the Derbyshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and has woven one of the cocoons:

‘As the silk mill was an important, past Derby industry I felt it was relevant, as a member of The Derbyshire Guild, to represent the group by using my weaving skills on a piece of the installation. It has been a great opportunity to work on a creative form using materials, especially the lighting, which I wouldn’t normally have used.’

Bibi

Bibi explains why she got involved with the project:

‘The idea of weaving a cocoon was irresistible to me. I am also excited about the development of the Museum of Making and what it is going to offer to the community.’

However it wasn’t without its challenges:

‘This cocoon was a challenge. The design is so good and the whole exercise was very rewarding in its outcome. I am delighted to be part of the project as a group effort. I am looking forward to seeing them all illuminated.’

Joan

Joan, as a weaver, was interested in helping with this project:

‘[I have] never undertaken a project of this sort before. I certainly found this an interesting challenge with the optical fibre being a difficult addition and always at the back of my mind the fact that my work was going to be on public display.’

Part of the path cleared through the museum ready for the move

At the storage facility used by Derby Museums, the rest of the team had been painstakingly packaging the model railway and were now loading it into the first of a handful of lorry and van loads headed towards the Silk Mill. The first of these loads arrived at around 11am accompanied by around half a dozen museum staff and volunteers. With the complexity of the move, every item would have a written identity attached to it to help avoid any component going missing. These corresponded to several labels around the room on the second floor so that components could be found again easily and unpackaged in the most common-sense order.

Top: One of many labelled boxes holding some of the thousands of small parts the model needs. Bottom: Halfway there – The first lorry load’s boards awaiting arrival into the Silk Mill

Over the course of the day, this load and a further two were carefully unloaded and transferred to where they were needed. At various points, the Derby Museums team discussed matters with the site’s construction firm Speller Metcalfe, and the removal company B.E. Webbe; and a representative from the museum workshop (which impressively was able to keep operating throughout the day). I was cheered to see how constructively everyone cooperated, each lending a hand at various points to help make the move as efficient as possible.

Top: Two volunteers delicately move one of the more fragile boxes into the building. Bottom: A minor stumbling block averted as the group in the workshop help the team clear space for a larger item

Some of the most recognisable parts of the railway layout, and the last to leave the vans were the scenery sections, the large pieces that will be put together and will form the landscape trains will travel through. Their fragile nature meant these had to have specially constructed shelves built around them to enable their safe transportation. It was a little surreal to see these jigsaw pieces outside of their normal context as they crept around the building. Also interesting was seeing how many similarities there are between them and the products the workshop is making for the museum fit-out. An early indication of how these two areas will mesh and help each other along in future.

Scenery sections are steadily walked out of the lorry and wait their turn to be moved up into their new home

There were so many parts to the model railway in fact, that despite the mammoth amount of work I saw undertaken during the move

on that day, the rest would have to being taken care of on a subsequent day. Even project leader Jeff, who has been living and breathing this project for months, was surprised at just how much there is when spread out properly. I too can’t wait to see the Museum of Making team piece the model railway together over the next few months.

Top: The underside of one of the track boards, showing the complex wiring needed for each section. Bottom: The heavier structural sections in their temporary place on the ground floor

After a scan has been fully realised and ‘polished’, the museum team then upload a version of it to the Sketchfab website, with more being uploaded all the time. The 3D models are not able to be purchased or downloaded, but they are free to view at https://sketchfab.com/DerbySilkMill/models as part of rendering Museum of Making more accessible both in person and remotely. Below are five of my favourite objects on the Museum of Making Sketchfab page:

Rolls-Royce Eagle Engine

One of the largest and by far the most complex object the museum has yet scanned, this V12 configuration Rolls-Royce Eagle aero engine is one of a pair that powered the first aerial trans-Atlantic crossing in June 1919. Its sculptural quality and cutting-edge technology and complexity for the time are both incredibly compelling to look at; as is being able to do so with such ease, when in reality the engine weighs over 400 kilos.

Elizabethan Measure

Dating from 1601 and made from bronze, this Tudor measuring vessel would have been used to quantify amounts of substances such as liquids, flour, or grain. This object is symbolic of a bid for standardisation and fairness and goes hand in hand with the boom in trade across Britain and the world during the Renaissance.

Ornamental Spray

This cast-iron ornamental spray would likely have been used as part of a building’s wall decoration or light fittings. It is made in the Rococo Revival style, this places it as being made roughly in the early to mid-19th century. Furnishings and architecture such as this are part of the built heritage of many towns and cities like Derby that grew larger and more prosperous off the back of the proceeds of the industrial revolution. Mass produced, probably from a hand-carved wooden moulding, this form of decoration would have been out of reach of the middle-class only a few generations before.

Semaphore Railway Signal

This object is the arm which would have formed part of a railway signal. Its position would tell drivers of oncoming trains, whether the line ahead was free of other traffic, or if they needed to stop or slow their train in order to space services appropriately and avoid accidents. Semaphore signalling is so named as it resembles the system of raising and lowering different flags as an early method of communication between ships. Signals like this were first used from the mid-1850s, and although long since superseded, a few are still in use today.

Pritchard’s of Derby Soda Bottle

Pritchard’s were a drinks firm founded in Derby in 1850. Originally only selling ginger beer from a single location on Kedleston Road, they later expanded into other beverages such as lemonade and apple wine. Having latterly amalgamated with other companies, the business was still operating locally in one form or another into the 1950s. This glass lemonade bottle is from the earlier part of the company’s life and would have been finished with a vulcanised rubber bottle stop, such as those invented by Charles Goodyear in 1844, which were often considered  preferable to earlier cork variants that tended to soak up liquids.

Visit Derby Museums’ Sketchfab to see more objects: https://sketchfab.com/DerbySilkMill/models

Of particular interest to me was a small booklet produced by Derby Museum and Art Gallery in the early 1950’s. It discusses what was then called the ‘Midland Railway Exhibit’, now more commonly know as the model railway, and the methods with which it was constructed. Included within this were passages setting the exhibit within its historical context, and small descriptions of each locomotive that featured in the model, rather like a theatre programme.

The sorting and cataloguing of these books will take some time, and there is as yet no firm plan for their future, but I was assured that Derby Museums’ staff are working hard to find a publicly accessible place for them in the future, and I myself will be first in the queue to have a better look at them.

Currently, the jigsaw pieces that make up the model railway in its current form are being worked on at the warehouse where they are currently held, coincidentally a stone’s throw away from one of the railway lines leading out of Derby Station. That work is primarily being undertaken by volunteers, all passionate about the project, some arrive learned in model making and railway history, while others are eager to learn, and all are committed to seeing the project come to fruition when the model is installed into the new Museum of Making.

Volunteer Annette is instructed in carving air-dry clay to mimic a section of dry-stone wall

A few weeks ago, I went to see the railway as it’s being worked on and talked to those people involved about what was happening. In essence there are two teams working on different parts of the model, one working on the scenery, buildings, and other objects that the trains will run through; and another whose job is to work on the parts less visible to the public, such as the layout’s structure and trackwork. Both have their’ work cut out, as the space in the museum where the end product will operate is both larger and shaped differently to how it was before, necessitating changes to the overall design to utilise that space better. Principally, the height of the model railway is being lowered, from around chest height to waist level. This means the space can forgo the raised viewing platform it used to have, letting children and the less abled have a better and unrestricted view of what’s going on. To do this involves the ‘behind the scenes’ team measuring and cutting to size every metal leg that holds up the railway’s wooden baseboards. Elsewhere others have been remodelling the track behind the backdrop, where trains complete their’ circuits and are stored and changed when not in use. Re-using as much of the pre-2016 trackwork and complex electrical wiring here as possible, as well as making sure each of the many lines fit together and works in its new position, is a hugely complex task. Getting it correct now however, as with the real-world railway, will make all the difference to the smooth running of the model.

One of the structural legs being reassembled after cutting & a track point labelled and ready for reuse

The picturesque miniature landscapes that will make up the new Kirtley are also being reworked, with features and the positions of buildings (some dating back to the original 1950’s design) being moved relative to each other, or carefully altered to make a model that is both an accurate and visually pleasing depiction of Edwardian Derbyshire. These alterations also include making places where sections of landscape can be dropped out, so a person can appear from under the middle of the railway to reach anything (otherwise inaccessible from the edges) that may need attending to once the layout is reassembled.

Resin and gravel being used to recreate waterways such as those found around Matlock and Dovedale

As a rail enthusiast myself, I loved and was fascinated by both researching the model railway’s history and context, and by the amount of forethought and workmanship that it will take to revive it for a fresh generation of visitors. I can’t wait to check up on it again soon.

The most striking area we looked at was what will become the Civic Hall. A triple height glass & steel structure at the western side of the building, it will act as an inviting ‘shop window’ for the museum’s activities, housing public works and a seated café area. Crowning the space, will be a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 turbofan jet engine hung from the ceiling. At around 12 feet across, it grabs your attention even now when covered during the building work. It represents both the power and expertise of Derby’s present, and a link to the museum’s own past, being sited close to where one of its RB211 predecessors formerly stood.

Upon walking through the rest of building, I was repeatedly excited to see the way that floors and areas were being sympathetically reworked and re-purposed to securely show a great deal more of the Museum of Making’s collections (100% will be accessible versus less than 10% previously) to their’ best advantage. A fresh approach to how some of the permanent collections will be displayed really interested me. Arranging objects by material taxonomy (What they are made of.), means that superficially very different things, from very different time periods can be juxtaposed next to each other. For instance, a Crown Derby plate could be placed next to a Formula One car’s carbon-ceramic brake disc 250+ years its’ junior.

Overall, I came away very encouraged to see what a thoughtful and methodical job is being done in renovating the Silk Mill site into a new Museum of Making for the city, and I’m very much looking forward to being part of it by continuing to help record its development in the future.

Click here to watch a video from the day