Bobbin, bobbin They’ve got the bobbin

Where many would see a discarded cog in an antiquated industrial process, a Nobleboro couple perceive an objet d’art.

For more than a decade, Dirk and Ann Poole have traveled around the globe securing wooden bobbins, once an integral part of textile-manufacturing plants. Through their wholesale company, Ma’s Bobbin Works, they sell the bobbins as collectibles. They also convert them into candle-holders or snuffers, jump-ropes, pens, kaleidoscopes, hourglass timers and lamps.

New England was once a center for the textile industry in the United States, with 76 percent of the U.S. mills in the region. Mills boomed in Saco and Lewiston, Manchester, N.H.; Fall River, New Bedford, Lowell and Lawrence, Mass.; and Pawtucket, R.I.

Spool-like bobbins of various sizes would revolve on a spindle and release or collect thread. The wooden pieces largely have been replaced by ones of plastic or compressed paper. According to an estimate in the book “The World of Wooden Bobbins,” three-quarters of the millions and millions of wooden bobbins in use as recently as the 1950s have been destroyed.

“We look at what we’re doing as a form of recycling,” Ann said in her office, the walls lined with photos of old mills. “We’re keeping the textile industry alive to some extent.”

Despite the fact that they’re working with a dwindling resource, the Pooles aren’t too concerned. They have about a 10-year supply of bobbins, with two chicken barns full, 12 miles up the road in Washington.

The Pooles find the bobbins by going into old textile mills that are either out of business or putting in new machinery. They’ve cleaned out mills in Biddeford, Corinna, Lewiston and Camden. Dealers of machinery will even give them a heads-up where there are bobbins to be found. They estimate that 60 percent of their bobbins have come from the United States, 30 percent from England and 10 percent from China.

Their collection of bobbins, with one of each type they’ve discovered, now numbers more than 400.

Each year, the couple add two or three items to their catalog, which they send to gift shops around the country. (They also supply bobbins for overseas companies still using the old machinery.) Sales representatives promote their products and send in the orders, which are filled at the Nobleboro plant. Their main customers are mom-and-pop gift shops, although they have sold to a number of large companies, such as Cracker Barrel, Eddie Bauer and Ethan Allen. They have international customers in Canada, Australia and Japan.

Since they’re dealing with a finite resource, what happens when they run out of one sort of bobbin?

“We’ll bring another kind out of the barn, and decide what it’s going to be,” Dirk explained.

Depending on their condition, some bobbins are left as is, while others are cleaned with steel wool or sanded, then rubbed with lemon oil. The metal bands on top also get polished.

The company’s success has been dependent on decorating styles. From 1994 to 2000, the company had four employees, but now they’re down to three.

“These are functional, and will fit into a lot of decorating styles, whatever the trend,” Ann said.

How does one get involved with selling bobbins? Believe it or not, it was Dirk’s family business. His father started the company in 1975 in Massachusetts, moving it to Maine in 1985. Dirk and Ann bought out his parents in 1992.

The Pooles also market other items they have found in old factories. These include old soda bottles and flats, metal fire-service kits, old milk bottles and wire carriers, shoe forms, blueberry and butter boxes, tackboard shelves and sconces, and burlap bags.

“We knew it would be important to diversify, as bobbins become less and less available,” Dirk said.

But, as long as they can, the Pooles will keep the beauty of bobbins alive.

“More and more, they’re a lost piece of history,” Ann said.

Among the stores stocking Ma’s Bobbin Works products are Country Hearts, Airport Mall, Bangor; The Acadia Shop, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor; and Rome Corner Trading Post, Rome.