Page 43 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1820 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

This series of drawings shows the variety of spindles used over time and across cultures
to twist fibers: (1) Wooden peg; (2) Silk winder from China; (3) Spindle with whorl from
Native Americans of British Columbia; (4) Spindle from Mesoamerica; (5) Spindle from
Peru; (6) Spindle from Tibet for yak wool; (7) Spindle from Tibet; (8) Simple spinning wheel;
(9) An early machine spindle from Finland; (10) Flywheel spindle from China; (11) Simple
cotton and wool spinning wheel; (12) Saxon spindle of a spinning wheel; (13) Spindle com-
monly used on nineteenth century cotton-spinning machines in the United States.

replaced kermes and became one of the most valuable or paste resists paint.When blocked onto a cloth before
New World exports until synthetic dyes began to replace dyeing, it produces a patterned fabric called by the Indo-
natural dyes in the last half of the nineteenth century. nesian word batik. Indonesians traditionally use wax to
Historically the dyeing process has not been as simple make their batiks; Africans use cassava paste while Japan-
as dunking a piece of fabric into a pot of dye. Sun- ese make a rice paste. In the eighteenth century, resist
bleaching fabrics to reduce the natural off-white colors pastes included chemicals that prevented a dye from fix-
required time and space. Dyes and mordants needed ing to a fabric. Popular indigo-resist prints in colonial
preparation, and the multistep dyeing process took days America had large floral patterns influenced by the
to complete. Dyers were among the earliest chemists, the imported Indian calicoes.A patterned fabric, even a plaid,
earliest herbal doctors, and the earliest artists. They col- offers marketable variations. From the earliest times,
ored not only pieces of cloth but also skeins of yarn, weavers devised methods of raising sets of warp yarns
which were then woven or braided into colorful patterns. before inserting a weft yarn between the warps on a loom.
When the weaver raised every other warp yarn, inserted
Patterned Fabrics a weft yarn across the width of the fabric, raised the alter-
Many cultures have produced patterned fabrics for cen- nate set of warps, and laid in another weft yarn, she pro-
turies by applying a resist in chosen areas to prevent dye duced a plain weave. By varying the pattern in which she
absorption. Resists can be wound around yarns or fixed raised each warp, she made other weave structures such
to a fabric. The Indonesian word for patterned fabrics as twills.The earliest hand-operated mechanism for selec-
woven of yarns that have been wrapped in sections to pre- tively raising warp yarns was a string that encircled alter-
vent dye penetration is ikat. Far Eastern, African, and nate warps connecting them to a rod that could pull them
Guatemalan ikats are internationally fashionable today. up away from the other set of yarns. The term for the
Japanese dyers produce a very marketable product called string loops controlling the warp yarns is heddles. Over
shibori, an expertly patterned tie-dyed cloth.African dyers time, improvements to this use of heddles allowed
create large tie-dye designs, popular inT-shirts today.Wax weavers to construct fabrics with complex patterns.