Almgren Silk Weaving Museum

Oh happy days, I'm back in Stockholm again. This really is one of my favourite European cities, of those I've visited. I think its the fact that you are never far from water, or open space or both. As a tourist who doesn't speak the language its also such an easy, non threatening place to get around.

There are some 85-87 Museums in Stockholm [the number seems to fluctuate up and down each time they update the seasonal brochure!]. I try each time I come to go and see something else off the list. This trip I went to the Almgren Silk Weaving Museum. It didn't jump out as one that I was enthusiastic to get to, but I'm getting to that point on the list. The Mill is on Sodermalm, the island we usually stay on, and it was gorgeously white with snow outdoors so I decided to rug up and walk to the museum. It wasn't easy to find, barely signed at all from the street, especially so for a non Swedish reader.

It is a working museum, and the history of the building and company were actually quite interesting. The mill was founded in 1833 and the Almgren family ran it for five generations until it closed down in 1974. Seventeen years later a few of the grandchildren of the last managers reopened the mill as a working museum, once again producing silk on the 170 year old looms.

The woman operating the loom on the day was more than happy to stop and chat, explaining to me how the loom worked and the quantities produced from a days efforts. The loom is huge and extraordinarily loud and appears very non ergonomic, but she assured me that she can happily work at it all day with no aches or pains and the added bonus that she never has to go to the gym [the operator leans against a bar rather than sits, with both arms and one leg in constant motion].

Upstairs in the loft was an interesting display around the history of the industry, details of the Almgren mill - once Scandinavia's largest employer of women. Everything from fabric samples to old wage books were on display. Unfortunately the reason for the mill closing in the 70s also prevented me from buying a souvenir from the store, of silk produced on site, its expensive, very expensive.

Facts that I noted in my sketchbook - 1kg of silk represents 350kg of mulberry leaves and 8000 eggs from 20-30 moths. Silk thread is approximately 0.02 mm, a human hair is 0.05. Today, on a manual loom with a flying shuttle [the operators pulls a chord for the shuttle to fly across carrying the cross thread, rather than manually pulling it across], produces around 1-1.5m x 56cm, using punchcards to 'programme' the woven pattern. To set up a loom for a new weave takes two weeks. There are very good reasons why hand woven silk is expensive!

On the wall in the loft a quote was painted, which had formerly appeared on a sign in the mill in its working day, one day I think I'll paint it above my kitchen sink;

"Det fordras också känsliga fingertoppar som inte fa fordarvas av alltför, mycket grovsysslor hema"

"your fingertips must be sensitive and not ruined by domestic work" 

                               Amen to that!