This sequence is a homage to those who made lace and still make it today. And since Calais has given lace its prestige, it is with pride that at Noyon we maintain our origins, that we associate our name with it and that all together we continue, day after day, to weave the story of lace by giving it the best of ourselves, for the greatest satisfaction of our clients.
Creation
SO AT THE BEGINNING, THERE'S A DREAM !
Sketchers
Dream drawers
There is no beginning, otherwise it would get lost in the night of motions, the key word is continuity. Perhaps it has to start with a sketch, always.
The learning process is slow, very slow, commensurate to a pencil and a rubber, the sketches absorb their trade and understand it.
Designers
The card masters
The sketch is examined from all sides, on card, and grows. This resembles a story that is told thread by thread, choosing a colour for each material. The pattern is no longer imagined, no longer presented in lines, but in the loom bar’s movements, each one highlighted by the designer’s drawing.
Pointers
Digital jugglers
Once again, this is about translating, and this translation focuses on a very large reproduction, where colour and transparency intermingle, for the beauty of the abstract patterns. Curves and scrolls, sketched out thoughts, will undergo a transition to the era of lines and rectangle, without giving up an ounce of grace.
Card perforators
The computer pianists
There are two methods, one is quick and modern: from a disk, the design is transferred to a computer which deciphers it and controls a robot. The old method is done with an old machine: it resembles a piano with pedals, both hands follow, hammering out different parts. The piece ends up becoming unique.
Preparation
Knowing the materials, their fragility, the ideal tension
Weavers – Warpers
The master spinners
Weave is a word that relates to plot, but more so to the tension of threads, it is about creating rolls. Chains for the weavers, gimps and embroidery for the warpers. Re-twisted after being reeled, the thread, the main element of the lace, is prepared, wound up, ready to be delivered to the machine.
Chain Passers
The ferrymen of the fragile
The passer evokes someone making a connection, steers the ferry to cross a body of water. Here it is the men who connect the threads, tie the links on the loom, for long hours. Often tulle makers in the making, they have their first encounter with the loom with the fine, fragile part, the thread.
Wheelers
The stars of the bobbin
A way in, we are in the reign of the circular, the round, the wheel. We approach from the symbol of the Leavers, the cart, we reach it via the bobbin, this round and mobile part that must be filled with thread, 150 metres of thread per bobbin, one millimetre wide.
Pressers
The accomplices of balance
The filled bobbins, bobbin-fully, pass into the hands of the specialist, the master of presses who balances the soft and the strong, with pressure and heat. He comes and goes, between the wheelers and the mounters, precious help, constantly on the look-out for another game to fill, or one to mount.
Mounters
The disk virtuosos
The motion is certain, in three moves. One, assemble, two, place the spring, three, the thread. With astonishing speed and dexterity. A ballet of the cart, the bobbin and the slide, incessant, unchanging movement.
Production
Birth of a lace
Tulle Makers
The masters
In this story, the music is deafening, the mechanism roars in rhythm. In front of giant looms, metres of cast iron more than a hundred years old, kilometres of threads, thousands of precious pieces, these men produce magic.
Implementers
The ironsmiths of the Leavers
Firstly, the righters of wrongs, of clumsy carts… objects rendered priceless by the quality of their alloy and rarity, these carts are subject to constant care and have their appointed specialists. It is not enough to want to be an implementer to be one, it takes skill and so much accuracy that some never manage it.
Mechanics
The keepers of time
They are a vital breath in the life of lace. Here pieces are often redesigned and produced. Lead comb or comb blade, the mechanics are masters of scheduling and can repair everything. They are the heroes of these old cast iron damsels.
Rachellists
The men of mesh
Whether they are working on the Rachel, Jacquardtronic or Textronic looms, these tulle makers are evolving in a futuristic world, with constant, monitored temperature and hygrometry. One degree warmer causes damages, excess humidity creates disorder. The men walk around the area between the machines, surveying several together.
Finish
The importance of looking
Inspectors
Observations
Whether inspecting ecru, finished, raw or coloured lace, the inspectors are harsh look-outs, with chalk or a marker in hand, they hunt down imperfection, whether it takes the form of a gap, growth, stripe or a bobbin hole.
Menders
Experts in magic
Bundle after bundle, expertly handling the sewing machine, the menders rewrite flowers and plain weave. Patiently, they follow the design, make defects disappear, redesign a border, fill in a gimp and, like a dream, reconstruct the slightest bit of background, whether honeycomb or cabling.
Clippers
The blade aces
In the clipping workshop, they play with blades, first with a machine and then by hand. Stretched between two rolls, the lace shows its wrong side, the long threads that float from one design to another, undesirables. To make these loose threads disappear, a liberating cut with the scissors, then a machine which trims…
Scalers
The material brushers
Hands smooth and guide even the most stubborn lace to liberate any scales. Meticulous, with their palms they listen to these designs which do not want to held, which slip, the others where scales that are too dug in impede movement and complicate the task.
Folders
The last look
The last touch, the last examination before being packaged or put on a bobbin. Maybe… Length by length, the lace is rolled up, to a precise measurement, any last flaws which got through the many checks are removed, with a cut of the scissors, the folders check one last time, measure and verify.