Silk is one of the most desired and popular natural fibers with a rich history. Pliny, the Roman historian, quoted in his Natural History in 70 BC that “Silk was obtained by removing the down from the leaves with the help of water…". It is interesting to note that for more than two thousand years the Chinese kept the secret of silk altogether to themselves. It is believed to be discovered by a Chinese Empress Hsi Ling Shi and was a guarded secret that passed through many centuries till it was discovered. Talking of silk fabric in furnishing, it has been one of the favorites owing to its light weight, rich and sophisticated feel, and because of its famous history. Interestingly, a more recent archeological survey reveals a small ivory cup carved with a silkworm design …show more content…
• Comfortable and absorbent • It is one of the strongest natural fabric. • Not resistant to abrasions and sunlight and air impurities, resulting in fading of the color. • Water spots can be easily visible. The fabric should be dry cleaned. • Silk fabric do not resist wrinkle. Producing silk From Cocoon to Yarn : Sericulture has a old history by which silkworms are used to cultivate silk by feeding them on mulberry leaves. The worms increase their body size by almost 10,000 times within a very short span of time. The silk worms stop eating by the end of a month and attach itself to straw to start spinning its cocoon. The worm ceases to eat by the end of thirty days and attach itself to a piece of straw and begins to spin its cocoon. This is when human intervention takes place between the stage of spinning a cocoon and before the hatching of worm, the cocoon is soaked in hot water and a fine thread is unraveled which is the silk fiber, later weaved into fabric. Washing and bleaching of the silk thread after the fiber has been extracted, it needs to be thoroughly washed to get rid of the glutinous substance, which may also be
The purpose of our project was to examine how accessible it would be to make medieval cosmetics from the Trotula while evaluating the effectiveness of these cosmetics. The Trotula was written in Southern Italy and consisted of a group of three texts describing women’s medicine. The third section of the Trotula focuses mainly on Women’s Cosmetics. The purpose of this section was to teach females how to improve their appearance themselves, except females, did not read these resources. It was not written by a woman, but by a male physician for male physicians. These male physicians wanted to discover “women’s secrets”. Due to the authorship of the Trotula, there were several problems that appeared when trying to replicate these recipes. Male physicians
A farmer in the late 19th century, upon plowing his land near Carthage, Alabama, discovered an object buried in the earth. From the soil, he removed a large stone disk, polished and flawlessly round. The disk was about 12 inches in diameter with small-notched edges. One side displayed incised globular lines and the flip side was “a strange engraving showing an open hand with what looked like an eye peering from it. Encircling the hand-and-eye image were two entwined rattlesnakes with horns and long tongues.” The farmer had previously found tools pieces of pottery, but he had never seen an object such as this (Blitz 2008:1).
In conclusion, these things are important because without them- our clothing now would be different. Thing about it. Some of the things you wear every day- come from things back then. Clothing for these people was like school uniforms for you. Fashion was not a choice, but a
Mao Dun, author of "Spring Silkworms", was a twentieth century Chinese novelist, critic, organizer, editor, and advocate for Chinese Communism. According to David Wang, Mao Dun was one of the most versatile Chinese literati among the May Fourth generation. Mao Dun was an advocate and practitioner of European naturalism. Motivated by history and politics, Mao Dun has introduced western literary ideas to China in his novels. As a left wing writer Mao Dun focuses on the peasant's point of view and relies on his depiction of reality to evoke change. A good example of this style of writing is the story "Spring Silkworms".
Forensic analysis of dyed textile fibers. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2009Aug; 394(8):2009-18. Epub 2009 Jun 20.
Unlike today, where the abundance of clothing is made from cotton, that was not true in the Middle Ages. Most clothes were made from wool due to its availability and affordability at that time. Wool was itchy and definitely not luxurious; in addition it was difficult to wash. However, people of the Middle Ages used their resources to the best of their ability. A few uncommon fabrics were linen, hemp, cotton, leather, fur, taffeta, velvet, and damask (Life in the Middle Ages).
Fabrics used – Romans used silk, wool, cotton and linen for their clothing. Clothing made of pure silk was rare and expensive so they weren’t worn till later on. Instead they used a mixture wit...
Weaving is a common thread among cultures around the world. Weaving is a way of producing cloth or textile. Today we have machines that weave large-scale textiles at cheap prices. Production of cloth by hand is rarely engaged in today’s Westernized societies. Not many people are thinking about how the fibers are actually constructed to make their clothes. However, in other cultures across the world the tradition of weaving still exists. By comparing three cultures that continue weaving as a part of their tradition we can see similarities and the differences between them. The reasons that each culture still weaves vary, as do the methods and materials. The desired characteristics of the cloth also vary around the world as each culture values different aesthetics.
· If spilt on clothes or skin, wash with water to prevent harm to the
Many, many things that we wear, sleep on, sleep under, walk on, or utilize in wound-care, etc., contain some percentage of cotton. It is a fiber that is used everyday, by everyone, in one way or another. It has qualities that have made it a choice crop for centuries around the world. Today though, cotton is being largely displaced by synthetic fibers that have qualities that exceed the natural crop plant. These fibers can also be mass-produced and sold at relatively lower costs.
During the Industrial Revolution, the textile industry received high demand for its cloth goods. However, the production of such goods was very slow. As demand rose, the need for a faster, cheaper, and more efficient way of producing enough cloth goods became more urgent. Thus, inventors began developing new ways to produce cloth goods. One of the best examples was English inventor James Hargreaves. Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny, a device in which spinners would use his right hand to quickly spin a wheel to rotate spindles and spin 8 threads around 8 spindles attached to a wooden frame. Since each spinning jenny could spin several threads simultaneously, the device dramatically increased the rate at which cloth was produced and the quantity of cloth that was made. This allowed for the textile industry to meet the large demand for cloth goods of the time and enhance their method of produ...
Fabrics can be made of natural and synthetic materials. Natural fabrics, like cotton (NY Fashion Center) for example, are found here on earth while synthetic fabrics are manmade (MV Styles). There are many distinguish ways to determine if a fabric is natural or synthetic. Each fabric is different in its own way due to it reaction to heat, its odor, residue and chemicals (MV Styles). Fabrics are seen and used every day and in every way. Synthetic material has been pushed more into the picture because it much easier to make and the cheapest to buy. Synthetic materials are sometimes made form fossil fuels like coal. Cotton and Broadcloth are natural fabrics; Polyester is synthetic and Flannel in a synthetic blend with cotton. Fabrics are made up of fibers which have their own chemical structure, which determines their classification. Polymers make up the fibers (Ball-Deslich and Funkhouser). Since cotton is natural, it comes from a natural cellulose fiber with the polymer of glucose (Cotton). Polyester is synthetic which can be classified as saturated or u...
Cotton is the major textile fiber used by man. Cotton was grown on more than 5 lacs farmers in 19 states in 1959 in USA. The world...
First of all, the fibres can classified as natural or man-made fibres. Natural fibres are those obtained from the natural resources on the environment, whereas the man-made fibres could be synthetic or regenerated fibres. Synthetic fibres are completely made from chemicals while regenerated fibres are those originally from natural resources unsuitable to be used as fibres directly, processed chemically to be changed into textile fibres. In this assignment, we will study on the general textile manufacturing processes as listed below. Then, it is hoped that the knowledge on general process could help us understand more on the industry as well to relate it with the environment.
The main problem which was needed to overcome was the selection of the fabric. Due to sustainable principle, I tried best to find the most sustainable fabrics; however, it was full of challenge. 100% silk organza, 100% silk taffeta and 100% Merino wool which were essential in my project were hard to discover in the fabric market in the UK. After consideration, I decided to order these expensive fabrics from China and finally sorted out the problem.