Play of geometry and layers

The intricate mola panels of Panama are created by the indigenous people of Kuna, using the reverse applique technique.

There was a time when the indigenous Kuna people of Panama wore little clothing and covered their bodies instead with elaborate and colourful body art. With the passage of time, when they began wearing clothes, they transferred the workmanship to their textiles, giving rise to the handmade textile art of mola.

 Mola panels are made using the reverse applique technique. Layers of different-coloured cotton cloth (up to seven layers) are sewn together. Then each layer is cut out in a pattern, revealing the cloth underneath. The largest pattern is cut out from the topmost layer, with progressively small designs being cut out from the lower layers. The edges of each layer are folded and sewn down with fine, almost invisible stitches. The beauty of the mola lies in the intricacy of the design and the finesse of the sewing.

Molas are characterised by vibrant colours and complex geometric patterns. They are often hailed as 'living history books' as the designs reflect the Kuna symbols of nature and their culture. The traditional costume of the Kuna woman includes a blouse adorned with mola panels.

FACT FILE

*Molas are characterised by vibrant colours and complex geometric patterns.

*They are often hailed as ‘living history books’ as the designs reflect the Kuna symbols of nature and their culture.

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What is special about Nagash painting of Saudi Arabia?

Get to know about the nagash painting of Saudi Arabia. Nagash painting, also known as Al-Qatt Al-Asiri, adorns the interior walls of traditional Arabic homes.

Tradition in Saudi Arabia dictates that the man builds the house and the woman decorates it. The women of the Asir province express their creativity by painting frescos on the interior walls of their homes. Known as Al-Qatt Al-Asiri, the traditional folk art form is recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. The paintings are paintings are also called nagash in Arabic.

The white gypsum walls provide the broad canvas for the home artists. They draw geometric lines, triangles, squares, diagonals and tree-like patterns in bright hues of blues, greens, yellows and reds. The patterns reflect the cultural and weaving heritage of the communities. While some communities draw simple open designs, others make more complex patterns edged with a black outline, adding structure to the design. Traditionally, the women used natural colours-yellow colour was extracted from  turmeric, black from coal, blue from indigo dye and green from grass. They used brushes made from camel or goat hair. Often, the painting is a communal affair where the ladies of the house invite their female guests to contribute in the beautification of the nagash.

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WHAT IS TULIP FESTIVAL? WHY DOES CANADA GET TULIPS EVERY YEAR?

The Canadian Tulip Festival (French: Festival Canadien des Tulipes; Dutch: Canadees Festival van de Tulp) is a tulip festival, held annually in May in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million tulips, with attendance of over 650,000 visitors annually. Large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city, and the largest display of tulips is found in Commissioners Park on the shores of Dow's Lake, and along the Rideau Canal with 300,000 tulips planted there alone.

In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered the future Queen Juliana and her family for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War. The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was temporarily declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian government, thereby allowing Princess Margriet's citizenship to be solely influenced by her mother's Dutch citizenship. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year.

In the years following Queen Juliana's original donation, Ottawa became famous for its tulips and in 1953 the Ottawa Board of Trade and photographer Malak Karsh organized the first "Canadian Tulip Festival". Queen Juliana returned to celebrate the festival in 1967, and Princess Margriet returned in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival.

For many years, the festival featured a series of outdoor music concerts in addition to the tulips. The 1972 festival saw Liberace give an opening concert, and at the 1987 festival, Canadian singer Alanis Morissette made her first appearance at the age of 12, first became widely known after opening for Big Sugar at the 2003 festival. Montreal's General Rudie also gained valuable exposure early in their career with a performance at the 2000 festival.

For a dozen years, the Canadian Tulip Festival celebrated countries all across the world, who have also adopted the Tulip as a Symbol of International Friendship. From Turkey, the originating country of the tulip.

While the Netherlands continues to send 20,000 bulbs to Canada each year (10,000 from the Royal Family and 10,000 from the Dutch Bulb Growers Association), by 1963 the festival featured more than 2 million, and today sees nearly 3 million tulips purchased from Dutch and Canadian distributors.

Credit : Wikipedia 

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What is Kintsugi art in japan?

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of sealing cracks in broken pieces of pottery using gold powder and lacquer. A direct translation of the word means 'golden joinery'. By emphasising the cracks, the need to mend them and renew an object, the 400-year-old technique reflects the larger Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi that tells you to look for beauty in imperfections.

The art may date back to the late 15th century,  when Japanese shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa returned a broken Chinese tea bowl to China to have it repaired. The bowl was given back to him held together with unattractive metal staples. At the time, staples were the main method used to fix broken, yet valuable, vessels. Tiny holes were drilled on either side of the broken pieces and then metal staples were bent and used to hold them in place.

The result was practical, but not very attractive. Yoshimasa's experience may have triggered a quest by Japanese craftsmen to find a new type of repair that could make damaged items look new — or even better.

The craft became so beautiful and so revered that collectors developed an appetite for the mended pieces. Some people were accused of purposely breaking prized items just so they could be repaired with the golden art. Some say that an item repaired by kintsugi looks more beautiful than when it was whole. When a ceramic vessel undergoes this mending transformation, its once-smooth surface becomes covered with rivers of colored zigzags and patterns. Because the repairs are done with meticulous skill (and with precious metal), the mended fractures look immaculate and artistic.

Credit : The Hugger 

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What is so special about Lake Titicaca?

The biggest knitted objects in the world are the 62 self-fashioned Uros Islands in Peru's Lake Titicaca (the world's highest navigable lake at 12,500 feet above sea level).  The most remarkable thing about Lake Titicaca is its floating Islands and the people who live there. Each island is no more than 90 feet wide and is strong enough to hold several hundred people, buildings and boats (balsas). The Uru people collect totora reeds, which grow in the lake, and weave their dense roots together to form sturdy layers called 'khili' (about one to two metres thick). These are anchored with ropes attached to sticks driven into the bottom of the lake. The reeds at the bottom of the islands rot away fairly quickly, so new reeds are added to the top constantly, about every three months. If well maintained, an island can last for 30 years.

The houses and boats of the Uro people are built from the same reeds using a similar technique to that of the islands. They also make handcrafted items that they sell to visitors to the floating islands. About every six months they have to lift up and move their houses and buildings so that they can add another layer to the reeds of the floating island. When the Totora is pulled for construction, part of the root is eaten because it’s a rich source of iodine. It is also used for pain relief, tea and to cure a hangover. Fishing and hunting for birds is one of the main ways of getting food on the islands. The Uros also eat the guinea pigs and ducks that they keep on the islands. Waterbirds are also kept on the island but for helping them fish or for their eggs. On the islands, there is a traditional school and a Christian school that are the main sources of education on the islands. As the kids get older and start looking for university they will likely leave the lake and head to the mainland to study in Puno.

The Uro’s way of living is one to marvel at but is also extremely difficult and steadily disappearing. Many still live in the traditional way, hauling reeds into their boats, reconstructing the islands, heading off onto the lake to fish, but many of the young people are leaving and start a different life on the mainland. Daily life here depends mostly around the reeds that grow in the lake, they provide food, housing and transportation.  It is a life of hard work and long days in a harsh climate.

In recent years, tourism has become an important part of the Uro economy. People have opened their homes and welcomed visitors from all over the world. Their unique lifestyle and breathtaking Lake Titicaca make the floating islands a must when passing Puno.

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What is the name of the Japanese man who created stunning arts using Microsoft Excel?

While most digital artists opt to use Photoshop or other similar digital imaging software, 77-year-old Japanese artist Tatsuo Horiuchi chooses to work with Microsoft Excel to produce his beautiful works of art. His “paintings” are remarkably intricate works that mimic traditional Japanese paintings that offer scenic views of natural landscapes rich with cultural motifs.

The artist says, “I never used Excel at work but I saw other people making pretty graphs and thought, ‘I could probably draw with that.'” He adds, “Graphics software is expensive but Excel comes pre-installed in most computers… And it has more functions and is easier to use than [Microsoft] Paint.”

Horiuchi even dabbled with Microsoft Word, but found it to be too restrictive in its paper sizing. There is far more freedom for the artist to expand on his pieces in Excel. Since his discovery of the program's artistic functions and his ability to utilize the software's capabilities, Horiuchi has gone on to win competitions with his work, most notably taking first prize at the Excel Autoshape Art Contest in 2006.

Having gained worldwide praise over the last few years, Horiuchi has now caught the attention of Great Big Story. The artist invited GBS into his home, offering a behind-the-scenes look at his process. It's hard to believe that these lifelike illustrations were made on Excel spreadsheets, which are typically used to crunch numbers.

Credit : My modern met

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Which is the most expensive nail polish in the world?

 

The most expensive nail polish in the world is Azature Black Diamond containing 267 carats of diamonds and costing US$250,000 a bottle.  In August 2012, Azature launched a unique black nail polish, made of black diamonds, which is priced at an astounding US $250,000. Azature is a creator based in Los Angeles-California, who gained immense fame for his beautiful jewellery collections and fine chocolates. He has taken his signature Azature appeal up a step, with the launch of this exclusive black diamond nail polish, which only celebrities and the uber-rich would be able to buy.

The world’s most expensive bottle of nail polish contains 267 carats of black diamonds, which would add an amazing sparkle to the nails of a celebrity or an aristocrat. However, Azature will be producing only one bottle of this 267 carat - $250,000 black diamond nail polish, which seems to be sort of like a publicity gimmick to attract rich customers, rather than anything else.

In the past Azature has dressed up leading celebrities, including Rihanna, Beyonce and the royalty of some countries. He has always created unique products (like diamond jewellery and chocolates) to impress his elite clientele. With the launch of the world’s most expensive nail polish, Azature seems to be entering the high-end cosmetics business.

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Why did Andy Warhol paint a soup can?

Did you know that the painting of a can of soup is considered to be one of the world's greatest masterpieces?

Artist Andy Warhol drew Campbell's Soup Cans between November 1961 and March or April 1962. The works were exhibited on July 9, 1962 in the Ferus Gallery of Los Angeles, California. When they were first displayed, the 32 canvases, each consisting of a painting of a different flavour of Campbell's Soup, met with a lot of ridicule for their ordinary subject matter. In fact, a neighbouring gallery even put actual soup cans on its window and advertised them as cheaper than Warhol's works (the cans cost only 29 cents). What did these rows upon rows of identical soup cans actually mean?

Well, though the paintings portrayed everyday, seemingly ordinary objects, they carried a deeper meaning. First, they were a commentary on how mass production and consumerism had come to dominate American life and culture.

Silkscreen painting

Second, just like the mass production of the soup cans. Warhol mass produced the paintings, using the silkscreen printing process that allowed him to create multiple versions of a single work.

He traced the images of a soup can onto his blank canvas, and then carefully filled each can using old fashioned brushes and paint. But each painting had a slight imperfection-a smudge, misprint or a slightly skewed label.

This also served as a contradiction to the Pop art culture. Pop artists usually tried to erase all traces of individuality from their work so that it looks almost identical. Although Warhol's soup cans were supposed to look like they'd been made mechanically, every painting had a slight difference. The paintings caused a sensation throughout the art world.

DID YOU KNOW?

  • When the public finally warmed up to Warhol's soup cans the art began to appear everywhere Warhol himself designed paper dresses in soup can print for New York socialites. Later, the Campbell company too joined in the fun. They came out with the Souper Dress covered in Warhol-esque soup labels.
  • In May 1969, Warhol appeared on the cover of the Esquire magazine drowning in a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup.
  • In 1996, The Museum of Modern Art in New York bought the 32 paintings from Irving Blum (who had purchased them from Warhol only for $1.000) for more than $15 million. Even the Souper Dress has been declared a classic.

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What the art of Paper Folding is called?


Paper Folding



Have you ever made a paper aeroplane? If you have, you have enjoyed the most recent and popular addition to the old craft of paper folding. This craft is called origami.



Originally, the Japanese invented about 100 origami figures. Most are natural forms, such as birds, frogs, and fish. One form of origami, with shapes all its own, is called noshi. These are pleated paper decorations that Japanese people attach to gifts. The Japanese like to use squares of paper for making origami figures. The squares range from 15 to 25 centimetres in size. They also use a special paper called washi.



Papermaking families in Japan still make washi by hand. To make washi, they first mix a glue-like liquid with bark, cotton, linen, or tree fibres and stir the mixture into a mush called pulp.



Next, they dip a special screen into the pulp and drain out most of the liquid. Then, they place the wet sheets on a flat surface to dry. The Japanese use the washi for umbrellas, kites, and origami.



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What are the best-selling stories of Roald Dahl for young readers?



Roald Dahl (September 13 1976 to November 23, 1990) was a British author of children’s books. Born in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He became an ace aviator and intelligence officer. He grew to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for both children and adults. In 1953, he published the best-selling story collection “Someone Like You” and went on to publish the popular book “James and the Giant Peach” in 1961. In 1964, he released another highly successful work, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, which was later adapted to film twice. A few of Dahl’s most popular works include:



James and the Giant Peach (1961)



This is a book about a lonely little boy who lives with his two mean aunts. One day, James gets a bag of mysterious things from an old man. The crocodile tongues that the bag contains squirm into the ground and a giant peach grows. James notices a hole in the peach and crawls in to escape from his aunts. Once inside the peach, he meets a giant Old Green Grasshopper, a Ladybug, a Spider, a Centipede, and an Earthworm. They start out on an amazing adventure. The book won widespread critical and commercial acclaim.



Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)



Three years after his first children’s book, Dahl published another big winner, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. An eccentric businessman, Willy Wonka runs a fantastical chocolate factory. Wonka hides five Golden Tickets inside his bars of chocolate. The finders are to be rewarded with a tour of his factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Charlie Bucket’s adventure begins when he finds a ticket and wins a whole day inside the chocolate factory. But, he has not idea of the surprises that are in store for him! Some critics accused Dahl of portraying a racist stereotype with his Oompa-Loompa characters in the book, but that never deterred him from writing more.



Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970)



The main character is a clever fox that talks, his wife and four little foxes. In order to feed his family, he steals food from three cruel farmers, Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, every night. The vexed farmers attempt to capture and kill him. How Mr. Fox outwits the farmers makes a delightful tale.



Over his decades-long writing career, Dahl wrote 19 children’s books. Despite their popularity, these books have been the subject of some controversy, as critics and parents have balked at their portrayal of children’s harsh revenge on adult wrongdoers. But that has not stopped children across the world from devouring his books with glee!



 



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How they make clothes to fit almost everyone?



The traditional tailor can take account of long arms or a spreading waistline and achieve a perfect fit. But made-to-measure clothes get more expensive every year, and the modern clothing industry has to make off-the-peg clothes that fit most people with no alteration.



One of the first proper surveys into people’s measurements was carried out by US Government, who measured 1000 recruits during the First World War to determine the best sizes for uniforms.



In Britain, 5000 women were measured in the early 1950s, with some unexpected results. Existing size charts were based on an average height for women of 5ft 6in (168cm) – but the survey found that the real average was 5ft 3in (160cm).



Today, in large companies, from a basic pattern produced by a designer, a computer produces a range of sizes to cover the normal variations of the population. Unusually small or large people complain that they can never find anything to fit them, and they are right; it does not make economic sense for manufacturers to produce the limited number of garments that would be sold.



The next step is to use the patterns to cut out the material for the garment. Rolls of material, which can be more than 100ft (30m) long, are laid out perfectly flat by machine. Hundreds of layers are spread on top of one another so that a large number of garments can be cut out at once. Computers are used to arrange the patterns on the material so that the minimum of cloth is wasted. A paper computer printout, called a marker, is laid on the layers of fabric ready for cutting.



The actual cutting of the material is done by knives guided from above, or in some modern factories, by laser beams controlled by computers. The laser, an intense beam of light, burns a clean cut through the material, far sharper than the cut of any knife.



Next, the pieces of material have to be sewn together. Many operations, such as buttonholing, can be done automatically. A hand-sewer averages 20 stitches a minute; modern machinery can sew up to 7000 stitches a minute. Some clothes are not stitched in the traditional way at all, but fused together.



Finally clothes are pressed, to mould them into the right shape and to make sharp creases or pleats. Special presses, called buck presses, are designed for each part of a garment.



 



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How to put the patterns into clothes?



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.



 



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How silk was made in traditional Chinese way?



For thousands of years silk has been traded from East to West, and it is still the most precious fabric by weight.



Silk is a fibre spun by the domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori, to create a cocoon in which it turns into a moth. Each cocoon consists of a single filament up to 1 mile (1.6km) long. It takes 110 cocoons to make a tie, 630 for a blouse and 3000 for a kimono.



Chinese legend dates the discovery of silk to the year 2640 BC, in the garden of Emperor Huang Ti. According to the story, Huang Ti asked his wife, Xi, Lingshi, to find out what was eating his mulberry trees. She discovered it was white worms that spun shiny cocoons. Dropping one by accident into warm water, she found that she could draw out a fine filament, and wind it onto reels. She had discovered how to make silk, and it remained a Chinese secret for the next 2000 years. Imperial law decreed that anybody revealing the secret would be tortured to death.



Manufacturing silk has four stages: the cultivation of mulberry trees, the raising of silkworms, the reeling of the silk fibre from the cocoons, and the weaving of fabric.



Silkworms will eat the leaves of a variety of trees – one type of silkworm feeds on oak leaves – but mulberry leaves produce the finest silk. In 1608 King James I ordered 10,000 black mulberry trees to be planted across England to create a domestic silk industry, but the project failed. He had unfortunately chosen the wrong variety – silkworms prefer the white mulberry.



In China the mulberries are cultivated as low bushes, so their leaves can be easily harvested and fed to the silkworms.



Silkworms are raised in the spring, in two months of intensive activity. The eggs, stored in a cool place from the previous season, are incubated as soon as the mulberry bushes come into leaf. They take about eight days to hatch, then the worms feed continuously on the mulberry leaves for almost a month. They increase their body weight 10,000 times in his four-week period. Even breathing does not interfere with their eating, because they breathe through holes in their bodies.



To be productive, silkworms must be cosseted. In China it was said that the worms liked warmth and hated cold, liked dryness and hated damp, liked cleanliness and hated dirt. But they were also said to dislike noise, the odour of frying fish, tears, shouting and women who were pregnant or had just give birth. Even today, in the Chinese province of Hangzhou, the women who look after the silkworms are forbidden to smoke, wear make-up, or eat garlic.



After their fourth moulting the silkworms set about making their cocoons. They begin to exude a semiliquid mixture from the two silk glands that run the length of their bodies. The single thread which emerges is made up of the two threads joined together.



First they anchor themselves by making a fine net. Then tossing their heads in a figure-of-eight motion, they slowly build up a waterproof cocoon that completely surrounds them. It takes a worm about three days to spin the entire cocoon, during which it will have shaken its head about 300,000 times.



Left to its own devices the worm will turn into a moth in about two weeks, exude an enzyme to weaken the cocoon and emerge to begin the life cycle once more. In practice only a few are allowed to do this, to provide for the following year. The rest are killed. By preventing the cocoon being damaged by the emerging moth, an unbroken thread can be recovered.



The process of obtaining the thread is called reeling. It is done by soaking the cocoons in warm water, finding the end of each silk thread and winding it onto a reel. Fibres from several cocoons, usually between five and eight, are wound on to the same reel to make a thread of sufficient thickness. Today automatic reeling machines do much of the work.



If two silkworms are placed together they create a twin cocoon. The silk that emerges is known as dupion. It has ‘slubs’ or lumpy places along the thread and is used to make fabrics with variations in texture.



World production of silk is small, around 50,000 tons a year, only a fifth of 1 per cent of total textile fibres. Its shimmering texture is created by fibres that are not round but triangular, and therefore reflect the light. It still makes the best ties and the most luxurious underwear.



 



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How the yarn is turned into cloth?



Primitive peoples wove fabric in just the same way as we do today. By the time of the death of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamun in the 14th century BC, immensely complex fabrics were being made, with delicate patterns in several colours. No items of ancient Greek fabrics survive, but the decoration on a vase of the 6th century BC shows both spinners and weavers. The loom, about 5ft (1.5m) high, is the same type as that used by Penelope as she waited for the return of her husband Odysseus in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey.



Weaving uses two sets of yarn, the warp and the weft. The warp threads run parallel along the length of the cloth, and the weft is threaded through them, over and under successive warp threads.



The yarn is woven on a loom, a framework of wood or metal which makes the repetitive process of threading the weft is threaded through them, over and under successive warp threads.



In a simple mechanical loom, the warp threads run off a roller as wide as the finished bolt of cloth will be. The threads pass through a set of wires running vertically, which can be moved up and down. Each wire has a small eye, or ring, in the middle through which the warp yarn runs. By simple mechanical arrangements it is possible to raise every alternate ring, making a space through which the weft can pass. In traditional looms, the weft is carried in a boat-shaped device called a shuttle, but many modern looms are shuttleless and use a rapier-like rod, or jets of air or water to carry the weft.



When the weft has passed through the warp, it is pushed down tightly against the previous thread with a comb-like frame. The rings carrying the warp threads are now depressed, the shuttle is turned round, and a second pass between a different set of threads is made. The fastest industrial looms of today can make well over 200 passes a minute.



The result of this process is plain weaving, in which each weft yarn passes over and under each warp yarn. It makes a tough, hard-wearing material.



Many other possibilities exist. Satin weave, for example, results when the warp is interwoven with only every fourth or fifth weft thread. Because long lengths of the warp lie on the surface of the fabric, it has a lustrous appearance, but may not wear well as it is easy for these exposed lengths to become snagged.



A variation on stain weave is damask, used for tablecloths, furnishing and silk fabrics. Subtle colour variations are achieved by alternating areas in which the warp lies on the surface with areas where the weft does. Minute differences in the reflection of light create the pattern.



Other weaves include twill, with characteristic diagonal lines – used in gabardine, serge and whipcord – and pile weaves, used for producing corduroy, plush, velour and velvet. The thick ‘pile’ of velvet is created by cutting some of the surface threads after weaving.



 



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How spinning machine works?



The principles of spinning are exactly the same now as when the task was performed by hand. The fibres are first ‘carded’ – arranged parallel to one another – by working them between two parallel moving surfaces faced with sharp points. Next they may be combed to remove short fibres, then fed into machines with rollers which draw out the fibres, making the yarn finer, and introducing a twist which holds the fibres together.



A very intense twist induces a kink in the yarn, as in crepe materials. Yarns may also be twisted together to produce a stronger, thicker thread – as in two-ply or three-ply knitting wool. Blended-fibre yarns may be made by spinning together fibres from different sources, mixing wool with polyester fibre, for example, to produce a better combination of warmth, strength and ease of washing.



Finally, the finished yarn is wound onto a bobbin, ready for dispatch.



 



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