Above all, I would like to tell you what a meeting was, a few years ago now, or how, after a visit to the weaving workshop at 12 bis rue Justin Godart, I was captivated by the Anne-Marie's talent: leaning against the hand loom, she tied up the threads of the fabulous history of Lyon weaving. “Bis-Tan-Clac-Pan”: she then started the deafening mechanical loom to advance the cotton stitching. His ability to make the history of this place so vivid, to answer our questions with authority and sometimes humor, hit the mark.

I was a member of Soierie Vivante.

We must now tell you how this membership could be improved thanks to learning led by high-level educational support, built around the “Perfect Trainee Guide”. Volunteering was a natural addition to membership and allows me, even today, to get involved by providing visits on Wednesdays to Henriette Letourneau's trimmings workshop. 

I will have great pleasure in welcoming new members and telling them the history of trimmings, of Henriette Letourneau, in reviving Jacquard looms and mechanics, and in enchanting you with the magic of weaving in a fireworks display of threads of silk, gold and silver.

You now need to know how, despite this confinement, we took advantage of the cessation of visits to undertake the restoration of the shaping profession of the municipal workshop on rue Justin Godart. A necessary refurbishment, because its harness, allowing the mechanics to ensure the lifting of the chain wires, was becoming obsolete.

Our volunteers and employees had to carry out the preliminary technical equipment operations (upgrading the 9,600 links hosting the chain wires, which represented around 200 hours of work). The company “Art'issant” carried out the re-laying and comb stitching of the 9,600 silk threads.

I wanted to tell you part of the daily, exciting, breathtaking story of an association: its members are driven by a passion for Lyon silk, giving part of their time so that Soierie Vivante remains the conduit of historical continuity. How, from a past preserved, explained, assumed, we can, in the light of the developments and revolutions of the Lyon textile industry, be proud and make you proud to participate in the influence of our city.

I will conclude, by extracting from the “Maxims and Moral Reflections” collected by Catherin Bugnard, permanent secretary of the Académie des Pierres Plantées: “Who cannot do with too much, do with little”.

Join us !