Introduce
Our bodies are covered in cloth.
Maybe you are sitting on the cushion of a subway car.
Maybe you are lying on a comfortable sofa.
You might as well be wrapped in a towel.
Or you're curled up in a colorful blanket.
They are all made of fabric.
Fabrics – both man-made and natural – have changed, defined, evolved and shaped the world we live in. From prehistoric times to the civilizations of the Middle East and ancient Egypt; through the silk robes of Chinese emperors to the fabrics that fueled the Industrial Revolution such as Indian Calico and Chintz; and finally to laboratory-synthesized fabrics that have allowed humans to travel further and faster than ever before.
For much of recorded history, four major natural fibres – cotton, silk, linen and wool – have been subject to human ingenuity. They have been used to provide warmth and protection, to define status, to create identity and personal adornment, and to provide a means for ingenuity and creativity.
We live in cloth. We are wrapped in cloth at birth, and we die with a shroud covering our faces. We sleep in layers, and when we wake up, we put on more cloth to face the world and let the world know who we are that day.
When we speak, we use words, phrases and metaphors that are very much related to the production of fibers and fabrics. For example, the words line, lining, lingerie, the word LINEN. Interestingly, the more we learn about Linen, the more we are led to something greater and richer than the language shell is currently understanding. From there, we will love the fabric woven from moonlight all the more.
Fiber & People
The ancient Greeks believed that human fate was controlled by three mythical Fate sisters, who would visit each child shortly after birth. Clotho, the most powerful, would use her spindle to begin spinning the child’s life’s thread; Lachesis would carefully measure the length of the thread; and then Atropos would cut it, deciding the moment a person would die. No mortal or god had the power to change the Fates’ decision once it had been decided. The Romans called them the Parcae; the Norse called them the Norns. This ancient story still resonates in the way we think about ourselves and our society today. When we say that life is “hanging by a thread” or want to help someone who is “in a state of turmoil,” we are continuing a tradition that dates back thousands of years. Fabrics and the materials that make them up have long been metaphors for many things in human life.
The threads that the Fates have spun cannot be changed. Even if they bestow upon someone a kingdom that is now in the hands of another, and even if that other person were to kill the destined Son of Heaven to seize the throne, the dead will still rise again to fulfill the orders of Fate.- Flavius Philostratus. Life of Apollonius Tyana, 3rd century -
The production of textiles and clothing has always been of paramount importance to any economy and culture on earth. Textiles allow mankind to choose its own destiny.
It is believed that in prehistoric times, clothing making in temperate regions took more time than pottery making and food production combined.
In ancient Egypt, linen was revered. Linen was not only a part of everyday life for most people – it was, after all, the most common fabric used for clothing, and many people were involved in growing flax as well as weaving linen. The practice had such a deep religious significance that, in fact, mummification and wrapping of corpses in specially prepared cloths, as well as cloths passed down through generations, transformed ordinary corpses into something sacred.
Today, we take textiles for granted. But for our ancestors, it was textiles that enabled humans to live and travel across lands too cold to live. The exchange of luxurious silks and warm wools over trade networks like the Silk Road facilitated the exchange of ideas, crafts, and people across cultures. It is estimated that more than a million women and children were employed as spinners in Britain in the mid-18th century. On the eve of the Industrial Revolution, their earnings could account for a third of the income of a poorer household. In today's collective imagination, this great economic transformation is associated with steel and coal; in fact, it was driven largely by textiles and cotton. "Anyone who talks about the Industrial Revolution talks about cotton." - Eric Hobsbawn. Industry and Empire. Cotton and the cloth woven from it were considered the first global commodities.
Today, we pay less attention to the origin and quality of the clothes we encounter in our daily lives. But they are still deeply personal. For example, we use our clothes to signal to those we come into contact with who we are and how we want to be seen.
Social classes have long been codified in fabric – both legally and informally. For example, the combination of linen and wool was an honor reserved for priests alone.
It is no surprise that the entire fabric of myth and fairy tale is related to textiles. Weaving was particularly conducive to storytelling: groups of people, often women, were huddled together and required to do the same task over and over again for hours on end. In such circumstances, it was only natural to make up and swap stories to pass the time. This also explains why characters associated with spinning and weaving appeared so frequently and were blessed with such superhuman skills and tricks. Take Penelope, wife of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey, who used weaving as an excuse to delay the insolent Achaean suitors who swarmed upon her like locusts, believing her husband to be dead. "She spread a large cloth on her loom in the house and began to weave it - a very thin and wide thread," Homer wrote towards the end of the 8th century BC. "During the day she would weave the large cloth continuously, but at night, by the torch placed next to the loom, she would unravel it. "This tactic bought her three years of reprieve - which perhaps shows how little men knew about this traditional female craft.
Trade
Every piece of fabric begins with a skein of twisted yarn. The word spinning today evokes the action of twirling, like the way a spinning top works, but it originally meant pulling and twisting at the same time, like pulling sugar in thread form around a stick to make cotton candy at a fair. The same action is used when spinning thin strands of fiber by hand to create a stronger, more useful thread. Yarn—wool, linen, cotton—is drawn from a large, loose mass of raw material and twisted together into yarn. This takes practice: If you don’t do it consistently, the yarn will be lumpy, while working too fast or too slow, the result will be too thin or too thick. The twist can be clockwise, for an X-twist, or counterclockwise, for an S-twist. However, it is important to get the twist just right: too loose a twist will weaken the yarn, but too tight a twist will cause the yarn to buckle, knot, and tangle easily when worked with. A skilled spinner is the result of many hours of repeated practice, often under the guidance of a skilled teacher who is willing to teach the student the subtleties of the craft.
I am a weaver, a skilled weaver, I have a loom that can weave the finest fabrics.I weave plain, I weave twill, I weave brocade, I weave satin; I am proficient in my craft.I stretch the warp, I thread the weft, I shuttle, I beat the yarn.I can wind it, I can stretch it.I can weave a linen worthy of adorning a royal bed.I lifted my heels and flew the shuttle, I aligned the thread and the curtain thread right away.- English Weaving Folk Songs -
There are many ways to spin yarn, and the methods chosen by a spinner will depend on their culture, their personality, the product they want to create, and the material they are working with. Some spinners twist the fiber between their hands and their big toes or thighs, while others use a spindle—a shaft usually about 30 centimeters long—or even a hooked stick. (Using a spindle gives the spinner an advantage because they have a place to wind the finished yarn to prevent tangling.) The same community may use different methods. The finished yarn can then be used directly or interwoven with other fibers to make a thicker, stronger yarn, suitable for heavier work.
Once spun, the finished yarn can be used for all sorts of purposes: braided together to make cord or rope. knitted or, of course, woven. Weaving is essentially the process of interlacing sets of yarns to form a seamless fabric. Traditionally, two sets of yarns are woven together at right angles. The warp or warp is held taut on the loom so that it doesn’t tangle, while the weft or cross-weave is patiently threaded through. There are countless ways to weave the yarns together. The simplest is a plain or tabby weave, in which each thread goes over one thread and then under the next. More complex weaves, such as those where the weft goes over or under multiple threads, can produce fabrics with a wide range of patterns and textures. For example, twill, commonly used to make denim, is woven by passing a yarn over one width and under two (or more) other widths; the finished fabric has distinct diagonal lines and is very resistant to tearing.
Given the delicate processes involved in weaving, and the soft, delicate, and difficult-to-handle raw materials, it was only natural that a range of technologies were developed to aid in the production of textiles. Some technologies were associated with the spinning process – for example, the previously mentioned spindle and the distaff, which was used to hold large quantities of unspun raw yarn. Others, such as the loom, were used to hold the yarns taut. One of the earliest, the back strap loom, used the weight of a human body to create tension. Another, popular in ancient Egypt, was called the warp-weighted loom. It had a horizontal bar overhead from which the yarns were suspended, with a weight attached to the lower end of each thread. Regardless of the loom’s design, the yarns were threaded from one side of the loom to the other, weaving the fabric thread by thread. Later, more complex loom designs were developed that allowed the weaver to lift several widths of thread so that the yarn could be quickly passed through the opening – called a shed – in a single stroke. Known as a heddle loom, this technology was first used in Egypt around 2,000 BC.
There are many parts of the process of making yarn and fabric that are no longer known. Craftsmen did not leave records of their work, so many of their techniques and skills have been lost along with the objects they created. What has survived gives us an asymmetrical impression. For example, those who spun yarn using their hands and thighs are absent from the archaeological record, while those who spun yarn using a stone spindle are. The same is true of looms: the more complex and durable they are, the more they leave a mark on history.
The most obvious use of textiles is for clothing, but yarn and fabric are also found in places you might not expect. If you own a Google Home speaker, you’ve probably noticed that part of it is covered in a nice-to-the-touch polyester-nylon blend. Technological devices have become so integral to our daily lives that it no longer makes sense to keep making them look edgy and futuristic. Instead, manufacturers want them to blend into the environment around us, like just another cute household item: that’s why they use textiles. Weaving is older than pottery or metallurgy, and perhaps even older than farming and herding. Weaving is primitive technology.
New Threads
Hey brother, once you have brought me the woven linen,Who will dye it for me, who will dye it for me,That linen, who will dye it for me?- Sumerian love song, 1750 BC -
Excerpt from The Golden Thread: How Fabric Change History. Kassia St. Clair
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