Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum c/o Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council
The Museum's Weaving Workshop specialises in Irish linen damask, woven on two 19th-century Jacquard handlooms, and produces napkins and commemorative linen featuring armorial and heraldic bearings, and bespoke commissions for important civic and historical events. The workshop has woven cloths for royalty, the Wallace Collection, and commercial production Jacquard design workshop, with all designs drafted in-house Jacquard card cutting on a 19th-century piano card cutter Weaving of plain linen from on a Cambric loom Handloom weaving on a variety of other handlooms, including a Dobby loom, tabletop loom, and Inkle looms.
Contact
Lisburn
Northern Ireland
bt281AG
About
In the early 1980s Brian Mackey, curator of the newly-established Lisburn Museum, invited John McAtasney - the 'last handloom weaver' in Ireland - to demonstrate damask weaving at the museum on a part-time basis in 1982. Historically, Lisburn had been an important centre for the handloom weaving industry from the 18th-century onwards, and was home to the world-famous Coulson damask manufactory. The firm, and offshoots, produced linen napery and tableware for the kings and queens of Europe, and tsars of Russia. John later became a full-time weaver and established a weaving programme as the museum expanded and added the Irish Linen Centre in 1994. John assembled a new damask loom in the museum’s galleries, and took on a Jacquard card cutter, and two apprentice weavers, in 1996.
For over 40 years, the Museum has fostered the craft of linen damask weaving, and invested heavily in its development. The Weaving Workshop currently has two full-time weavers, Alison McNamee and Donna Campbell.
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