After the AGM in the morning we spent the afternoon learning about and making Macclesfield buttons
Our visit to Macclesfield Silk Museum two years ago had inspired Sally to look into the history and production of these buttons. After a short talk and a look at some samples that Sally had made we were all keen to have a go ourselves.
Provided with a kit of materials we got started, but it was not as easy as it first appeared and we were amazed to know that it was usually the job of the children to make these. Traditionally the buttons were made by winding fine silk thread onto a wooden former to create a pattern. There was near silence as we all concentrated on getting the threads in the correct place and as work progressed we were delighted to see the pattern appear.
The last part was the trickiest, but after a few struggles we all managed to complete this successfully.
A big thank you to Sally for preparing and running this workshop, we all enjoyed it and were very proud to take home our own Macclesfield button.
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