Ontario Science Centre weaves special coverlet on 19th century machine to celebrate Canada 150
A special coverlet (bedspread) -- made on the antique loom -- with 'Canada 150' woven on it would be perfect to celebrate Canada’s Sesquicentennial, thought OSC.
Displaying the blanket that was last woven in 1880 by a professional weaver, John Campbell, the former owner of the Jacquard loom, Baer said he felt proud to weave it again in celebration of Canada’s Sesquicentennial.
The loom, which worked with punch cards, had been in the OSC ever since the opening of OSC in 1967.
Baer said Jacquard looms used perforated cards fastened together to control the movements of the machine.
After learning that a John Campbell coverlet collection was stored in the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Baer, along with fellow weaver Elizabeth Evans and OSC's Volunteer Coordinator Shauna Cook, obtained special access in January 2016 to see the loom and found that Campbell had left detailed accounts of what he made and sold.
With a dream to recreate these patterns, Baer started studying the books and the punch cards that came with the loom, and learnt that four main patterns were woven.
Only two of the patterns: the Stars and Roses, and the Garland were present in the OSC.
ROM provided Baer with examples of the other two coverlet patterns, the Tulip and the Single Rose.
Baer took detailed photos of ROM’s Single Rose pattern coverlet and was able to determine where each point went, and created a set of cards for the project.
He explained that each card on an average had 150 holes.
Punching holes into the card was both time consuming and labour intensive.
Baer said he could just work on it for an hour a day and was able to get five cards punched in a day.
From March to October of 2016 Baer was able to punch all the cards.
In June, 2017, Baer started to weave on the Jacquard loom.
He found that the final measurement of the pattern was 3x3 meter but the loom was not wide enough.
So Baer and his team decided to weave a long pattern of six meters.
This was then cut into two halves and stitched together at the centre to make it wide enough.
Baer said he had to design special cards to weave Canada 150 at the border of the weaved product.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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