Our Story
We are Bea Uprichard and Ruth Farris, founders of Fishbone and Sycamore, and the sole designers of heritage jacquard handloom silk in the UK. We have dedicated ourselves to restoring, weaving and perfecting lost skills alongside the innovative restoration team at Paradise Mill in Macclesfield. Here time has stood still since the Industrial Revolution, when Macclesfield was the world’s largest producer of finished silk, and home to 71 mills. Paradise Mill is the only remaining relic. Built in 1862, the mill continued producing commercially until the weavers and tacklers finally dropped their tools in 1981, and their tools have barely moved since. The beams of some looms still boast weavers’ betting slips on horses named ‘10 Dollars More’ and ‘Carnival’s Image’. 42 years later, and 161 years after Paradise Mill was built, we joined Paradise Mill’s restoration team as volunteers, and fell in love with the space.
For decades the machinery was largely static, which made the challenge ahead of the restoration team at the time - to restore Loom 22 to working order - a huge venture. Daniel Hearn, Patricia Halloran and Rebecca Faragher, against all odds, with a distinct lack of information and guidance available to them (relying on archived students’ workbooks, technical weaving books, and advice from previous weavers), engaged in ‘experimental archaeology’, and amazingly made and replaced a degrading harness of 5760 heddles, and with our help entered a warp of 5760 ends into both heddles and reed. The project was not without its difficulties, one small threading error resulting in 2 days of wasted work. Unbeknownst to all, this warp would go on to form the first neckerchiefs and neck ties which now characterise silk weaving partnership Fishbone and Sycamore.
This innovative restoration work was funded by the Association for Industrial Archaeology, The National Lottery, and - after a chance encounter with previous weaver in residence Kathleen Butler - Rogers and Goffigon. Whilst exploring the archives in Paradise Mill, the team came across pattern labels on numerous sets of punchcards crediting ‘KB’ as the designer. Some investigation culminated in an invite for us to visit the previous weaver in residence Kathleen Butler at her studio. We were able to share the samples we had woven of Kathleen’s old punchcard design ‘Two People Dancing’, compare experiences, and receive some advice from Kathleen, whose time at Paradise Mill had launched her now very successful career in woven textile design
During our time helping to restore Loom 22, we began to investigate whether or not it was possible to make a new design for the Victorian jacquard looms. At the time, we were in the second year of our ‘Textiles in Practice’ degrees at Manchester School of Art, and were spending more and more time in the weaving workshop. After weeks of research, looking at the extensive Macclesfield Silk Museum archives, designing, and punching and lacing 192 cards (whilst snow trickled through the mill’s now-replaced deteriorating roof), we finally installed on the loom what would be the mill’s first new design in decades. We owe the success of this project to the endless and visionary guidance and mentorship of Daniel and Patricia on the restoration team, occasionally shared over a pint at the nearby Jolly Sailor. It was a hugely important project, not only in proving that new designs were possible, but also in sparking our interest in new design as a vessel for celebrating heritage craft and local history. In recognition of this project, we were awarded a commendation from the Bradford Textiles Society.
As soon as we had finished our university degrees, and thanks to some generous funding from Manchester Metropolitan University and the Radcliffe Trust, we were able to embark on a new, even more complex challenge. We had set our sights on the creation of a design with not one, but two colours in the weft, which would combine to create a double-sided, three colour design, and require the restoration of the dropboxes on either side of the sley. This design was once again inspired by the Macclesfield Silk Museum archives, and aimed to breathe new life into the craft of jacquard silk handloom weaving, by utilising our contemporary design personalities - characterised by playful, organic and abstract repeat patterns - whose roots remain in traditional craft.
The completion of this project was equally as difficult and rewarding as the first, but we began to feel that our designs needed a purpose beyond experimentation. We wanted to be able to fund our restoration work with a commercial output, the first the mill had seen in over 40 years. Fishbone and Sycamore thus became the only producer of heritage jacquard handloom silk in the UK, and the only Northern representative of the Heritage Craft Association’s list of silk weavers on the Red List for Endangered Crafts.
Our restoration work now happens organically alongside consistent silk production and use of the loom, which has given us a far deeper understanding of the craft, and highlighted numerous new complications which require us to be open to learning more about the loom and Jacquard mechanism every day. As such, Fishbone and Sycamore is more than a brand - it is a vessel through which we can preserve and create knowledge and skills, share an understanding of fabrics and belongings, brighten Paradise Mill with new voices and stories, reinterpret Macclesfield’s rich textiles history, and create a community of likeminded craft devotees.
Since its conception, Fishbone and Sycamore has led us to befriend Stockholm based heritage Jacquard handloom silk mill K. A. Almgren’s restorer Karin, who undertook a two week design and punchcard cutting project at Paradise Mill. It has also led us to design and weave an entirely Macclesfield-made shirt, collaborate with Salford Badge Club, exhibit with Selvedge Magazine and the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, and lead workshops and talks with Derbyshire Makes, the Festival of Making, the Heritage Crafts Association, and Manchester School of Art. You can find more details about our recent projects listed on Our Portfolio.
Fishbone and Sycamore would not exist without the endless and visionary mentorship and guidance of Daniel Hearn, Patricia Halloran and Bryony Renshaw. We have been so lucky to work with them towards the preservation and celebration of Paradise Mill and heritage Jacquard handloom silk weaving.