Thursday, December 22, 2011

Lonaconing Silk Mill: Details

Captured with a Nikon 200mm macro lens converted to black and white with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2

 Sunday, I mixed shooting with the Lensbaby with some macro work and Lensbaby macro with the +4 diopter. As many times as I have been to this fading silk mill...I have never worked at a macro level. I think at first the place is so intriguing on a large scale you start with a bigger picture..literally. This visit I made some intimate shots of what is left behind on a macro level. Looking at these little porcelain silk threaders sent me on a historical search this morning...I Googled porcelain silk threaders...(Google Books has been digitizing journals and papers which is so fabulous...as the paper they are printed on becomes fragile we will have digital history to read.) Having been a retailer in the fashion industry and seamstress as a teenager I love fabrics... I made many of my clothes because I loved sewing and creating with fabrics. Silks, wools and cottons were my fabrics of choice, all natural and beautiful fabrics. Silk was always an amazing fabric durable, beautiful and lightweight. Here's a few links to the American Journals of the 1920's I found on the silk industry, cotton and wool industry. It was fascinating to me, to read through some of these journals, looking at the advertisements and fashions.  Click Here for the American Silk Journal. It made me think, wow, how things have changed in 100 years...it is interesting to ponder how America was growing at that time...and the forces in the world on such a young nation and its people! Click here for the American Wool and Cotton Reporter.
Tags for bobbin spools.
Lensbaby capture processed with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2























Peeling ceiling paint falls from the wood ceiling like snow when the wind blows through the broken window panes.
I found an old advertisement, while scouring the journals of the time, for the manufacturer of the bobbins that still remain in hundreds if not thousands in this old mill.
 When manufacturing of fabrics changed from all natural to synthetics many suppliers died as well.























Why is this there? A question I had to ask myself as I saw it laying on top of an old machine. I remember these little flash bulbs as my dad used them when he was making pictures of the family at events..could this be a Sylvania Super Flash M5 bulb?

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful. The subjects are seemingly endless there. When I was a young kid, I remember going to a family wedding and the photographer used flash bulbs like this one. Isn't interesting how something so small and mundane is tied to memories?

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