_TAPESTRY AND PILE WORK_
_Tapestry._--What are generally known in trade as tapestries, are
figured fabrics for curtains, hangings, &c., not damask, which is
distinct, being woven with only one warp and weft. Real tapestry is
a hand-made fabric of very ancient origin, being in use since the
days of the ancient Egyptians, who wove or worked it in a manner very
similar to that employed at the present time. It does not belong to
‘jacquard weaving,’ but being the first in point of the excellence of
its patterns amongst figured fabrics, a short description of it may
not be out of place. Henry VIII. tried to establish tapestry weaving
in this country, but failed, but James I. had a flourishing factory at
Mortlake. Tapestry weaving appears to have been introduced into France
about the ninth century. The Flemish were celebrated for it from the
twelfth century. Arras work surpassed all the others, and tapestry
was commonly known as arras work. The sixteenth century gave a new
impulse to the trade in France. Francis I. founded the manufactory of
Fontainebleau, and Henry IV. re-established tapestry making in Paris
in the years 1595 to 1606. About the year 1666 Louis XIV. bought the
Gobelins Works (which take their name from the original owners, a rich
family of wool dyers), and established the Royal Gobelins Tapestry
Manufactory, which is now one of the sights of Paris.
There were two methods of working tapestries--one known as ‘basse
lisse,’ or low warp, the threads of warp being placed in a horizontal
position in the loom; the other was called ‘haute lisse,’ or high warp,
as the threads of warp were placed in an upright or vertical position.
It is the latter method of working that is now adopted.
The loom consists of an upright frame of wood of a size to suit the
cloth to be made. There is a strong roller at the top, which acts as
a warp beam, and another at the bottom for the cloth beam. Both these
rollers have ratchet wheels on one end, and are held with pawls or
catches so as to allow the warp to be wound off and the cloth to be
wound up when required, and then hold the stretch of warp steady to
be woven. The warp is coarse, but a clean, regular thread of twist,
cotton, or linen, about 12 to 18 threads per inch (more or less, as
desired,) and of such a thickness that the spaces between the threads
are somewhat less than the diameter of the threads. The weft is usually
of fine wool but a fairly thick thread, say 4’s or 6’s worsted. This
is generally used alone, of whatever shade of colour is required,
and there is no end to the shades used; but in some places, to give
brilliancy and richness of effect, silk is used along with the wool,
and sometimes tinsel or gold cord. These are put in separate threads
along with the woollen or worsted weft. The silk is much finer than the
worsted, say about equal to 12’s or 16’s cotton, and, of course, can be
regulated to give the effect required. The gold is sufficient to give
sparkle to the portion it is employed in.
After leaving the warp beam the warp is divided by two thick glass
lease rods. Then every alternate thread, those to the front of the
frame, is drawn through a doup of a half-leaf of heddles which is fixed
in a horizontal position above the weaver’s head. This enables a plain
shed to be formed, as the thick lease rod divides the threads and forms
one shed. Then, when the weaver, sitting at the back of the loom, draws
back the half-leaf of heddles, all the front threads or any portion of
them can be drawn back past the back set, and form a cross shed. As
the doups of the heddles are long and strong, the weaver can take any
number of them he requires and draw the front warp back; then putting
his fingers into the shed thus formed, clear it down to the fell of the
cloth and insert his bobbin.
[Illustration: Fig. 168]
The pattern is painted on design paper, shaded in the way it is to
appear on the cloth, and the weaver must have a bobbin of weft to
suit each tint or shade of colour on the design. The outline of the
pattern is traced on the warp to guide the weaver, and the painted
pattern is fastened up either before him or to one side of him, so as
to be convenient to read the stitches off it. When ready for work he
looks at the pattern and finds perhaps 20 stitches of blue; then he
selects a bobbin of the correct shade and passes it through the open
shed of the warp round 10 threads; then he draws the 10 doups of the
heddles that are round the 10 threads intermediate with and in front of
these, pulling them back through the others and forming a cross shed.
The same bobbin is now passed through this shed, and the weft pressed
down with a pin or comb, both of which articles the weaver uses for
straightening and beating up the weft. This covers 20 threads of warp
with blue weft. The texture of the cloth is plain throughout, the weft
being bent round the warp and pressed close together, forming a rib.
Now, instead of completing this weft line all along the cloth, as is
usual in coloured weaving, the weaver goes on working with the bobbin
he has taken up, following the colouring on the pattern, and may change
his bobbin when required for a new shade or colour, and go on working
this portion for some distance upwards, and then begin an adjoining
portion and work it up in the same way. This will come all right when
the outlines of the portion he is working run obliquely; but if they
should run upright for any distance in the same direction as the warp,
it is plain there would be two selvages coming together without any
connection between these portions of the cloth, as shown in Fig. 168.
When the pattern runs in a diagonal direction, the weft threads passing
across from one warp thread to the next one make a sufficient binding
or connecting link between the two colours, as may be seen at the upper
portion of this figure, which would be quite sufficiently connected
when it is considered that the weft threads are pressed so closely
together as to entirely cover the warp. To remedy the objection of a
slit or division between the two portions of a pattern in the case of
a vertical line, it is customary to tack the bobbin of one colour of
weft round the first warp thread of the adjoining colour, at intervals
of, say 3/16 in. This produces a toothed appearance, but is not very
remarkable. The only other remedy would be to link the two wefts on
each other occasionally. In many of the old tapestries it may be seen
that this was neglected, even when the distance was as much as 3 in.
or 4 in. Sometimes they were stitched afterwards in these places with
a needle and thread. When there are many long straight lines running
in one direction, as in architectural subjects, it is best to work the
pattern so that these will run in the direction of the weft, to avoid
any joining being required. Patterns can be wrought sideways or upright
on the cloth as desired to suit the size, subject, &c.
[Illustration: Fig. 169]
As the weaver sits at the back of his frame or loom when working,
he has to come round occasionally to examine the face of his work.
Sometimes he keeps a looking-glass in front to show him how he is
getting on. He has also a rough pattern on the back of the cloth
similar to that on the front, as the nature of the weave must give him
the same on both sides were it not for the loose ends at each change
of bobbin, which have to be tacked up at the back. Tapestry weaving is
a very tedious process of working, but in skilful hands very beautiful,
and artistic results can be produced.
_Figured Pile Fabrics._--When we come to pile work we have a great
scope for the ornamentation of fabrics, but the nature of the work is
such that it is only suited to heavy or moderately heavy cloth, and a
large number of either threads or picks per inch are required.
Forming stripes of plain or figured pile alternately with twilled
or figured stripes can easily be accomplished with either a weft or
warp pile, but when we come to figure indiscriminately over the cloth
there is more trouble. For a length of time there was a difficulty in
cutting weft-pile figured fabrics, as the knife or cutter would not
always enter the proper ‘race’ round the edges of the figure, and the
floats were cut irregularly. This has now been overcome by arranging
the design to suit. Fig. 169 is a common velveteen designed for a weft
pile figure. Only a portion of the pattern is given, but enough to show
the method of arranging the design. It will be seen that the figuring
is produced by flushing the weft on one side of the cloth, and for the
ground it passes to the other side. The edges of the pattern are moved
across the design paper in steps of two, and no flush or float is less
than over four threads. In addition to this the figure should be turned
in the centre on an odd number of ends, which in cutting keeps the race
end on the inside of the step into which the knife enters. The knife is
run up on all the odd numbers of ends moving across in steps of two,
and, leaving no flushes of less than four, gives it a better chance of
entering in the proper place along the edges of the pattern.
Fig. 170 is another make of velvet for a heavier fabric, with 60
threads of warp per inch, and from 350 to 400 picks. It makes a good
firm cloth, suitable for curtains or furniture coverings. The principle
of designing is the same as for Fig. 169. Both these patterns are
portions of a diamond figure.
When the figure is produced with a warp pile, it is only necessary to
raise the proper warp threads with the jacquard for the insertion
of each wire, but the difficulty to contend with is that there will
be an irregular take-up of the warp pile threads, and this can only
be remedied by having a number of small warp beams. In some cases a
separate spool for each warp thread may be required, which, of course,
for a fine velvet means a very intricate arrangement, though it suits
very well for pile carpets. Different heights of pile can be formed
through a pattern in this way--say, a short pile to be left looped, and
a longer pile to be cut, which, in suitable colours of pile and ground,
forms a very beautiful though costly fabric.
[Illustration: Fig. 170]
Another method of warp pile weaving, more easily accomplished, is
that known as terry, or Turkish towel weaving. It is largely used for
quilts, toilet covers, towels, &c., and any bold figure can be woven on
it with almost as much ease as on ordinary damask work.
There are two methods of forming figures on the cloth in this style of
weaving, one by having two colours of pile warp and changing them from
one side to the other to form the figure or ground--that is, supposing
the one pile warp to be red and the other white--pile would be thrown
up on both sides of the cloth at the same time; on one side the figure
would be formed by the red pile and the ground by the white pile, and
the other side would be the reverse of this. Fig. 171 is a portion of
a pattern of this style. The black squares represent, say, the red
warp-forming loops on the face of the cloth, and the shaded squares the
same for the white warp. The crosses are the ground or binding threads;
and the dots represent the pile threads of the colours they are on,
raised to bind with the weft, when these threads are forming pile on
the underside of the cloth.
[Illustration: Fig. 171]
The other method is to have only one colour of pile warp--in fact,
to have only one pile warp, it might be said, instead of two, as in
the previous case. The cloth consists of a pile figure and a plain or
solid ground on one side, and the reverse of this on the other side.
The pile and ground may be of the same colour, or of different tints
if desired--say a rich cream ground and a white pile. This style of
working is very suitable for quiltings, toilet covers, &c. Fig. 172
is a portion of a pattern for weaving in this way. The black squares
represent the pile-warp raised to form loops, and the round dots are
also pile-warp raised, but only for binding when the loops are being
formed at the other side of the cloth. The shaded squares show the
ground warp raised to form the body texture. This cloth has about 60
threads of warp per inch, and the same or a little more weft.
[Illustration: Fig. 172]
Figs. 173 and 174 are two examples of six-shot pile cloth for quilts;
it is made with 50 to 60 threads of warp per inch, and double that
quantity of weft. The same method of marking the design paper is used
as that for 172 pattern. It will be seen that in Fig. 173 the loops or
flushes of pile are over five and under one, and in Fig. 174 they are
over two, under one, over one, and under one, thus making a fast pile
fabric, whereas the floats of five in Fig. 173 would be rather loose
unless the cloth is over-wefted. Both these piles may be used in the
one cloth, one for the face and the other for the back, as is given in
the figures; the light portion of Fig. 173 being of the same texture as
the dark portion of Fig. 174. One pattern may be taken as the face of
the cloth and the other as the back. Of course they may also be used
separately if desired. Any full-harness mounting that will suit the
pattern will answer for these fabrics, the loops being thrown up in the
usual way, by leaving a few shots standing out from the fell and then
knocking all up, drawing forward the pile warp, which is slackened at
this beat, but sliding on the ground warp, which is held firm.
[Illustration: Fig. 174]
[Illustration: Fig. 173]
Another method of forming figure pile is to weave a plain pile, and
when cut press or stamp a pattern on it with heated blocks cut to the
pattern; the standing pile is then shorn off, and afterwards that which
was pressed down is brushed up again, forming a full-pile figure on a
shorn-pile ground.