Mr. Mattelon’s hand weaving workshop, 10 rue Richan
Mr. Mattelon was born into a peasant family from Haute-Savoie in 1913 and he unfortunately lost his father during the First World War. His mother, who had married a former weaver, set up a hand weaving workshop on the rue du Bon Pasteur. Georges fell in love with weaving and set up a workshop on the Croix Rousse hill (rue Gigodot).
In 1938 he bought the famous Millan workshop, located on rue Richan. There were 9 looms on two floors. This workshop had ceased activity since WW1.
Mr. Mattelon received a lot of business after WW2: he worked for the biggest houses in Lyon (la maison Anselme, Coudurier-Fructus…) but also for great names (Windsor’s Duke, Picasso, the Cardinal Gerlier…).
He bought mechanical looms in 1950 and placed them on the ground floor of the building. He was awarded the prize for “best worker in France” in 1955. Due to the bad economical conditions in France between 1965 and 1970, he tried to set up a textile industry in Algeria.
He retired in 1975 and returned to Lyon. He then decided to restore his damask loom, which possessed punched cards from 1830. He shared his enthusiasm with visitors by joining Soierie Vivante, until he died in 2004.
Mr. Mattelon’s family handweaving workshop is certainly the most interesting workshop that can be seen in Lyon (we could even say in France!): neither its appearance, nor its materials have changed since the 19th century. The atmosphere is very particular; it feels as though time has stopped here. Let’s briefly describe this workshop:
There are four very different looms, so that each weaver could answer quickly to each type of order coming from the suppliers, or from customers directly.
- the first is a very old loom (probably dating back to 1820), fitted with a simple mechanism, capable of weaving plain small fabrics (60 to 90 cm)
- the second is a similar loom capable of weaving larger fabrics (more than a meter in width) and fitted with a mechanism (from Lyon) that can vary the crossing of the threads
- the third is a chameleon loom that can weave very large fabrics (up to 2 meters in width) without any mechanism. This loom is operated with two pedals, each one controlling a group of threads. This loom is also particular because one has to use a special shuttle: this shuttle can launch two different threads at the same time with the same tension. The fabric is called “chameleon” because of the effect of the warp threads and the two weft threads: it shows a different colour depending on the light, it is beautiful, yet very hard to create (ex: the “Gorge de Pigeon” was a chameleon fabric with grey, blue and pale pink). Parisian designers such as Nina Ricci or Christian Lacroix were very fund of this fabric.
-the fourth loom weaves figured fabrics. It was restored thanks to Soierie Vivante. It can weave a shaped damask fabric with punched cards from the 19th century. This loom was used in the restoration of the Assize Court in Aix en Provence.
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