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Jacket fabric for the HBO series West World

Schedule for Textile History Forum, April 29 – May 1, 2016

Friday April 29

9:30am: Introduction to Hyde Hall by Jonathan Maney

10am: How do we know what we know? Basic textile identification with Rabbit Goody

12:30pm: Lunch

2pm George Clarke, The Builder – Receipts That Tell Us So Much by Jill Maney

3:15pm: Break

3:30-5pm: Hands-on identification…practical experience in fiber analysis and technical recording of textile information.

Dinner on your own.

Saturday April 30

9:30am: What should the windows look like? with Bruno Lopez Poulin

10:30am: The special textile collections at Hyde Hall – identifying and dating the red worsted damask and cataloging textiles for Hyde Hall

12:30pm: Lunch

2pm: More special textile collections at Hyde Hall – Identifying, dating and cataloging textiles for Hyde Hall

5:30pm: Wine and cheese reception for the Board of Trustees and donors at Hyde Hall and dinner with Hyde Hall Staff

Sunday May 1st

10am: The Textile Roadshow – identification of participants’ textiles

12:30pm Lunch

2pm: Trims and their importance: The Collection at Hyde Hall and Tassel and Trim Making in the 19th Century.

Hyde Hall has an extraordinary collection of curtains and gilt valances from the Great House Dining Room and Drawing Room. Together we will piece together the physical evidence and work with experts to understand and reassemble the parts of the surviving drapery so that we can reconstruct the magnificent window treatments as they once were. This is a unique experience for anyone who is interested in textile history. Together we will “remake” history at Hyde Hall.

Register for the Textile History Forum 2016

tassel

When: Friday April 29 through Sunday May 1, 2016
Where: Hyde Hall in Glimmerglass State Park, Springfield, NY 13333
Click here for driving directions.

Please join us for a very special Textile History Forum on Friday, April 29 – Sunday, May 1, 2016. This year we are planning a hands-on forum to identify and date the surviving drapery fabrics at Hyde Hall. This is an unprecedented opportunity for anyone interested in historic fabrics to work with experts and help catalog this amazing collection of early 19th century fabrics and trims.

Hyde Hall has an extensive collection of curtains and gilt valances from the Great House Dining Room and Drawing Room. As a group, we will piece together the physical evidence and, with the help of experts, reassemble the parts so that we can reconstruct the magnificent window treatments as they once were.

Lunches and one dinner are included in the registration fee of $225.00. Single day participation is $100.00

Please contact us if you have questions. We look forward to a great experience at this wonderful historic mansion. Click here to register.

Annual Open House Showroom and Mill Tours

Lincoln Damask

Reverse side of the Lincoln Parlor Damask. Silk warp and worsted filling.

Our annual Open House Showroom and Mill Tours are slated for Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6, from 9-5pm each day. The mill will be open weekdays starting December 7 for the rest of the Holiday Season.

The showroom will include our historic bed hangings, carpets, and drapery fabrics. New historic patterns from our jacquard loom will be available as scarves, shawls for the Holiday Season. The showroom will remain setup through the end of the year but our Open House weekend will allow visitors to see all of our historic machinery in action.

This year the mill has been weaving the drapery fabrics for Lincoln’s Home in Springfield Illinois. The original damask fabric used by the Lincolns in their home circa 1862 survived in the archives of the National Park Service. It was reproduced in the 1980’s by Scalamandre and now is being reproduced again by Thistle Hill Weavers. Using the existing fragment as a evidence, the worsted wool yarn was spun in Maine and dyed in Philadelphia; the silk was spun and dyed in Japan. These draperies will hang in the front and rear parlors of the Lincoln Home.

Thistle Hill has also reproduced the other draperies in the Lincoln Home, gossamer dimity for the bedrooms and the hall, and embossed moire worsted for the library.

Besides weaving drapery for the Lincoln Home, Thistle Hill has been busy weaving “Lincoln” shawls for Beekman 1802 Mercantile, in the style of the shawl that Abraham Lincoln wore which survives in the Smithsonian Institution collection. Thistle Hill’s reproduction of the shawl appears in the trailer for the movie “Lincoln, A Team of Rivals” released a few years ago.

Flash Sale – One Day Only – November 14

We are having a FLASH SALE of our over-run fabrics on Wednesday, November 14 from 9am to 5pm. Don’t miss this opportunity to clean up while we clean out our over runs!

This one-day-only sale features prices ranging from $30 to $95 per yard. Minimum yardage is a 1/2 yard. If you come and find a fabric that you want us to make into items, we will also take orders for the holidays.

Also, please mark your calendar and save the date: our Holiday Open House this year starts Saturday, December 5 and goes through Saturday, December 12. We hope to see you then.

Lincoln Damask on the Jacquard Loom

The Lincoln Damask for the front and rear parlor of the Lincoln Home

Lincoln Damask drapery silk warp ready to be beamed

Figured Venetian Carpet

Continuing On with Holly Berry