The Chinese have been exchanging gifts of richly patterned fabrics for thousands of years. At about the time of Christ’s birth the wife of a Chinese nobleman, Ho Kuang, gave another, Shunyu yen, ‘twenty-four rolls of a silk brocade with a grape design, and twenty-five rolls of thin silk design, and twenty-five rolls of thin silk woven with a pattern of scattered flowers.’
The Chinese mastered the art of weaving, using silk threads of many colours and complex weaves to produce brocades and tapestries. With primitive looms, weaving patterns into cloth was a job that needed a great deal of skill and patience.
Even with the inventions of the 18th century, a weaver had to know which of the warp threads (running down the length of the loom) to lift and which to leave to make a pattern. Only the threads that were lifted would be woven into the design when the shuttle carrying the weft (the threads running across the loom) was ‘thrown’ across the loom.
It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that a French silk weaver, Joseph Jacquard, found a way to make detailed patterns without skilled weavers. A chain of cards punched with holes was attached to a rotating block above the loom. Only where there were holes could threads be picked up by small hooks and become woven into the pattern. After each card had been used to make a small part of a pattern, the block was given a quarter-turn, bringing the next card into place.
It took 24,000 cards to weave a silk portrait of Jacquard, so accurate that it could hardly be distinguished from a portrait in oils. The cards were tied together in a long strip which slowly passed over the loom. Jacquard looms are still used to make luxury fabrics.
Many patterned fabrics can be woven on simpler machines. The timeless patterns of tweed are still woven on hand looms.
The direct printing of patterns onto woven fabrics originated in India, and the first printed calicos were brought to Europe in the 16th century. From the Hindi word ‘tchint’ comes ‘chintz’, which we still use to describe printed fabrics that are glazed to give them a slight sheen.
Modern textile printing uses metal rollers on which the design is engraved, with each colour applied by a different roller. The rollers pass through a colour trough as they rotate and then transfer the dye to the fabric. As many as 16 rollers may be used to produce a fabric.
Electronic control ensures that each successive roller matches its patterns perfectly with the one before. As the fabric comes off the final roller it passes through an oven where it is dried. Modern machines can print in 16 colours at speeds of 200yds (180m) of fabric a minute.
Picture Credit : Google
