The weaving workshop also “weaves” links, on Thursdays at the Distillery

About ten people come together and create projects throughout the year. Louise Gerbaud

In the workshop, it is possible to work the raw wool with a carding, the tool to separate the fibers. Louise Gerbaud

Creating a placemat with a special technique. Louise Gerbaud

Les participants peuvent travailler avec diverses matières telles que la laine, le synthétique ou le coton. Louise Gerbaud

Bernard Kohn a fabriqué trois métiers à tisser. Louise Gerbaud

La manufacture des Pays propose de faire découvrir ce savoir-faire lors de séance collective tout au long de l’année, mais aussi au cours d’activités en lien avec le tissage.

" We come here above all to weave links, as Bernard Kohn would say", says Pascale, one of the participants. Inside, around a large table, a small group of people are busy, their hands immersed in threads and looms. On either side of the room, woven creations, rectangular or circular in various colors are hung. Every Thursday, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., within the Lodève distillery, this weaving workshop is led by Marie-Hélène Blanchard and Bernard Kohn in a warm atmosphere.

“Everyone does things according to their tastes, their project or their imagination. What drives us is the emulation of seeing each other do things and the creative process”, explains Marie-Hélène, a former border worker. Trained at the Gobelins factory in Paris, she began her career there before also working at the Beauvais factory and the Savonnerie de Lodève. "I’learned carpet techniques to specialize in the Lodève factory," she says.

"To bring forth the intelligence of the hand"

With forty-four years of experience under her belt, she volunteered in 2021 to set up this workshop at the initiative of Bernard Kohn, a retired architect. It was during a trip to India that the latter discovered weaving. Eager to continue and share this activity, he made his workshop and frames available and made three looms. "Before learning things through knowledge, it was essential for him to know how to use his hands, to bring out the intelligence of the hand as he liked to say", testifies Danièle. Bernard also wanted to revive the history of the once flourishing territory through his textile business.

Cotton, synthetic fiber, sheep's wool… There is no shortage of materials and a multitude of projects to explore. One of the participants brought her lampshade that she personalizes with thread. Another stretches raw wool using a spinning tool. ” J’love testing out combinations, colors, it's like writing pages, and then it's very meditative, it relaxes", explains Danièle.

A wide range of activities related to weaving

However, the workshop is not limited to weaving thread and offers activities to explore the different facets of this art: vegetable dyeing course, session on the different ways of spinning, visit to museums that exhibit weaving, etc. “We also learn about the different types of wool depending on the species of sheep“, says Pascale, who runs workshops on felting wool. The group recently visited a sheepfold on the Larzac plateau to watch sheep being sheared.

Marie-Hélène and Bernard get their supplies from second-hand shops: “We recover materials from the factory, such as stocks of wool”, explains the facilitator. La Savonnerie even gave them an old loom.

In October, the group plans to go to the wool festival in Felletin. A workshop that is teeming with ideas and is not about to hang up.

Workshop with membership of 15 euros per year,

More information on: la-distillerie.org