Silk Screening in Lyon, France

We are in Lyon, France and wandering The Presqu'ile.  It is a bit of land (French for peninsula) between the two rivers in Lyon.  Atelier de la Soierie is a silk workshop and the public can drop in to see silk printing, block printing, and screen painting by hand.  This is a lost art that today has been mostly replaced by machines.

Come on along and share what we saw.  As we enter the room, a gentleman is demonstrating the silk screening process.  He is working on entire bolts of silk, making scarves in groups of six at a time.  He shows us how he changes colors and patterns as he goes.

On the wall behind him, is Benito's "Lyon by Night" in each stage of it's development.  They use works by many masters and they are incredible.

As we climb the stairs to the shop, a peek down into the paint room shows just how many colors are used each day.

There's a great little shop upstairs but the best part of all is this amazing woman that we meet.  She is hand-painting bolts of silk that are like jacquards.  They have raised white patterns in them repeating every 3 feet.  The best part is that she hand paints each section with a Q-tip, making each scarve different as she goes.

 I am utterly fascinated with the entire process and admire her for what she does.  We talk for quite awhile and she shares with us that the people in Lyon are considering bringing silkwork back here.  They still have all the looms, the knowledge to go forward and are starting to build worm farms.  The price of silk in China has become so expensive for them that they feel they can do it themselves once again AND put people in Lyon to work.  I love it.  It definitely makes me want to go back again in a few years.

Want to see her finished product?  Oh goodness, check it out.

That's it.  Wow, even though this was not our destination, it has been so fascinating.  Once quick look at the variety of scarves for sale as we exit and this tour is complete.