RIGHT IN THE HEART OF CHESHIRE...

Today I relived the stressful hard working times of a factory worker seeing the machinery be brought to life. All the manual machines were made up of different components but instead of technology everything was made by card boards patterns that memorised the pattern to transfer to the fabric. These machine operated with a range of 200-450 bobbins on at one time all controlled by one person. The layout of this historical building was tightly compacted with machines close together, as you can imagine the noise would be awful and disturbing giving you an essence of the mood and atmosphere felt in this one room. Obviously the English didn't discover Silk, China did, 4000 years ago whereas we've only claimed the natural fibre for 400 years. Looking back at all these sentimental pieces it makes you think about how everything has been condensed into smaller machinery with less controls and amount of employees to moniter and control the machines.
Being at this factory has inspired my designs for my chosen theme as I have focused on working class and thought the life of a poor factory worker could be incorporated into the colours, shapes and mood to my final design taking shapes and patterns from the machinery capturing the essence of history. I gained a lot of more knowledge form this outting and think it will benefit me when it comes to designing my final garment.