Bizarre & Curious Silks

A project tracing the influence of Huguenot silk weaving in Britain
Exhibited at Huguenot Museum & Rochester Art Gallery 5th July - 21st September 2019

Video cut together by Michelle Stephens

The Huguenots were Calvinist Protestants who were forced to practice their faith in secret due to religious persecution in France. Compared with those whose money was tied up in land or financial arrangements, it was easier for skill-based workers, including weavers, to flee quietly. Silk weaving was the largest single trade of the refugees and the Huguenot designers, throwsters, dyers, weavers and mercers played a large role in the development of the silk industry in Britain.

‘Those who settled here wove all sorts of plain, fine, flowered and wrought silks ... English silks equal if not exceed for fineness and curious workmanship any that are in the world.’

(Harris 1729:63, quoted in Rothstein 1987: 130)

Hannah was commissioned to develop a project which celebrated the legacy of the Huguenot silk weavers.

She studied historical fabrics in the Warner Textile Archive and the company archive is David Walters fabrics, as well as the objects and stories in the Huguenot Museum and French Hospital Collection. She researched Spitalfields silks weavers and was inspired by the work of James Leman, who’s name is now synonymous with the so called Bizarre style in the early Eighteenth century.

Hannah worked with David Walters Fabrics Limited to developed three jacquard fabrics informed by her research.

She also produced a series of handwoven works which explore historical techniques such as lampas, velvet weaving and lace making. Figured fabrics from the eighteenth century are constructed with long, wild floating threads on the back where the yarns are hidden from the surface of the design. Hannah chose to bring these hidden floats to the front of the cloth in her designs, to reveal the secrets of their construction. The work is predominantly silk with some metallic elements. The colours have been inspired by the richness of strong contrasting hues found in the historical research.

The project included a film of the weaving process, a series of workshops and an exhibition monograph.

Curators: Dinah Winch and Allison Young