Two new street names for the Rôtillon

A small celebration will be held this Friday, June 20 to inaugurate the completion of Rôtillon project. The streets are all newly paved with cobble stones and look great now. The final touch is a spring-clean of the remaining old buildings. The gaudy facades covered with graffitis and tags receive a fresh coat of paint and we just completed the renovation project for the museum. We will open our doors to the public, but also set up a special booth about leather and tanning in the “Rue du Flon”. A currently nameless alley will receive the name of Tanners Alley (Ruelle des Tanneurs) to remember the past of this neighborhood. Also the long stairs next to the Café des Artisans will be called the Cobbler’s Stairs (Escaliers des savetiers) from now on. It fills our heart with joy to see that the city is finally giving credit to the industrious “leathery” past that flourished here a long time ago.

Final setup

The floor is set, the walls and ceiling are clean and the lighting is perfect. All there is to do is to put our exhibition back. The temporary layout of the shelves pays off, we are gaining a lot of time. In one afternoon only all is back in place, as if nothing ever happened. We are ready for the usual opening hours this coming week-end.

A new oak plank floor

As the saying goes, think global but buy local. Our choice for floors was to address the best in town, the company Menetrey, specialist in the field for over a century.

The museum is empty

The museum is full of emptiness. We took out everything to prepare for the arrival of a new oak floor that replaces the over 30 year old linoleum floor. The room has never been so empty 😉 But have no fear, this weekend we will again be ready to welcome you.

Thai delegation

Today we were honored by the pleasant visit from the team of the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok. It’s always interesting when museum people meet. Their favorite remark was: “Finally a museum where we can touch things!”

The castling

The new setup is in place. The tools have their final position on the opposite wall, arranged by time period. Moving the shelves across the room has allowed us to increase our shelf space.

New tool boards

This years main project also implies a better presentation of tools and technical means used by shoemakers from various eras. (See blog 9/21/2013). We started the year with this part of the project, sorting out the tools and wooden lasts by historical periods.

Starting the transformation

After sealing the sources of humidity and ventilating the back rooms to keep the levels of humidity under control we’re finally ready to fix those walls. Due to a lack of funding it’s the boss in person who gets to the task.

Noblesse oblige – Château de Prangins

This time we presented 18th century footwear and for the occasion in 18th century costumes, of course. We invested in new costumes. Few meters of fabric from IKEA and other used fabrics, wire, pieces of pipe, rods and string and two months of cutting and stitching were necessary for making these tailored monuments. The 18th century seems to be a time when one had to be an architect as well as a tailor to make such constructions out of fabric and basketry. The ladies in those beautiful dresses must have given the impression of a Spanish galleons in full sail floating through the candle lit salons. Both costumes won a price during the final fashion show. Our daughter received the public award and the price of authenticity, given by some costume experts went to Dr. Volken whose fingers still hurt from all the stitching. The event happend at the National Museum in Prangins

25 years of “The Company of Saynt George”

We were invited to a very special birthday. We took part in the festivities for the 25 anniversary of the Company of Saint George at the Castle of Vallerois-le-Bois. For once it was planned to celebrate with family and kids but without the public with their modern clothes and modern devices of all kinds. This gave a true medieval atmosphere. On really could feel being propelled 600 years into the past , particularly within such authentic surroundings of the medieval castle.

A project for our 10th anniversary

It would be about time to commemorate 10 years of our museum with something special. The first project by our newly created association aims to freshen up the exhibition concept. After a few sessions of brain storming we are ready to present our project. We also need to optimise the indoor climate conditions.

Cobblestone paving in front of our doors

The rebuilding project of our neighborhood also involves setting cobblestones in all the streets and passages. It is hard work and best done by hand. The sound of hammer strokes on the stones being driven into the laid out sand is music and that will accompany us for weeks to come. Each day, be it sunshine or rain they advance a few yards.