Joseph Marie Jacquard, French inventor

Weft, warp, technology: in a word, Jacquard.

Infinite decorations, complex and colorful, created directly in weaving, from the weave and warp, instead of printed: that’s why the jacquard processing is particularly valuable and still used to make fabrics, clothing and rugs.
It owes its name to Joseph Marie Jacquard, a French inventor who in the early 800 patented a special automatic frame, putting to good use several inventions that had developed in previous years.

In a particularly fervent period with regard to the mechanical innovations to be employed in the production, Jacquard had the intuition of bringing together in a single machine three processes already widely tested in the eighteenth century.
It is the technique of perforated needles and cardboard, containing the drawings, designed by Basile Bouchon in 1725 and perfected by Jean Baptiste Falcon in 1734, and the introduction of the mechanical cylinder (the cylinder of Vaucanson, 1744) which automated the replacement of cartons during work.

Jacquard loom project

Automation of textile production

This loom represents the first application of a perforated card to a machine, in fact a binary code (full/empty), which allows counterweights to change the position of the warp threads.
For this reason it is considered the ancestor of computer and modern computers.
The ancient, completely manual, way of using the loom was thus supplanted by a partially automatic system, which allowed to employ only one person per machine, while before the weaver there were other helpers, in particular children, to assist its movements.

It was a real labor revolution, with social implications before productive.
As often happens, a radical change raises the fears of many (in this case unemployment), so much so that the first reaction was in contrast, with strikes by the silk weavers of Lyon.
Centuries before, in the second half of the year 400 and always in the city of Lyon, there was another attempt to introduce mechanical looms, by Giovanni il Calabrese, an Italian who was boycotted, once again, by weavers.
Joseph Marie Jacquard perfected that machine by modernising weaving, speeding up and standardizing textile production.
The fabrics themselves were transformed; automation made it possible to create more complex and articulated designs, increasingly appreciated by the market.

Jacquard loom weaving

Jacquard loom for Atelier rugs

Even today, in times of digital automation, jacquard processing has not lost its charm and its particular sophistication.
It is with this technique that the rugs of the Atelier collection are created, leaving ample freedom in the designs and in the choice of colors of the yarns to be woven.
Unique pieces with high customization, on palette up to 5 colors to design with which to give life to countless combinations.
An accessible product, designed for those who want to change rug more often, without sacrificing the quality Platinum Custom Rugs.

Atelier rug detail