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C8 - Missoulian, Monday, March 18, 2013

TEXTILES

LEARN MORE ABOUT TEXTILES IN THE NEXT TWO INSTALLMENTS OF WORLD OF WONDER© 2013 Triefeldt Studios, Inc.Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS

At a bookstore near you: Two full-color World of Wonder compilations: “Plants & Animals” and “People & Places.”

By Laurie Triefeldt

Trim here and attach to Part Three SOURCES: World Book Encyclopedia, World Book Inc.; www.spwhsl.com; http://threadsintyme.tripod.com; www.encyclopedia.com; www.homespunhaven.com; www.woolery.com

PART TWO OF FOUR — COLLECT ALL FOUR AND MAKE A GIANT POSTERCut and attach to Part One

PLANT FIBERS A golden ageA.D. 500 to 1000: Spinning wheels are used in India and China.A.D. 500: The Chinese invent a method of resist dyeing using wood blocks, allowing them to print multicolored patterns over large areas of cloth.600: Woodblock printing is used in Egypt.700: Batik is developed in Southeast Asia as a wax resist technique.925: Germany initiates the Wool Dyers Guild.1000s: Cotton socks are knit-ted using a continuous thread in Egypt.1130: Skilled weavers from Greece and Turkey arrive in Italy and produce fabrics of silk interlaced with gold.1200: The ancient process of making red dye from lichens is introduced in Europe.1200s: A directory of more than 200 tailors, dyers, weav-ers and spinners is published in Florence, Italy. Florence becomes wealthy from textile production and trade.1290: Germany cultivates plants for dye.1458: The Mixtec people pay a yearly tribute of 2,000 deco-rated cotton blankets and 40 bags of cochineal (red) dye to the Aztec king Montezuma.1507: The cultivation of dye plants as an industry begins in France and Holland.1519: Spanish conquistadors Pizarro and Cortez find that the people of Central and South America are using cotton and block printing.1600: The modern spinning wheel comes together (adding the treadle to the flyer wheel).1630: Native Americans teach natural dyeing techniques to European settlers.1733: The flying shuttle is patented.1757: Copper plate printing of fabric is invented in England.1768: A hand-operated warp knitting machine is invented.1770: The spinning jenny is patented.1779: The spinning mule is invented.1784: The power loom is invented.1794: The cotton gin is pat-ented.

SpinningNo one knows exactly when people began spinning fibers into string, thread or yarn on a spindle (basically a stick with a stone or weight attached). The spinning wheel — a spindle turned on its side and connected to a drive wheel — was developed in India or China between A.D. 500 and 1000.

Plain weave

Twill weave

Satin weave

Woman spinning. Detail from an ancient Greek pot (490 B.C.) British Museum, London

Fibers of the jute plant can be woven into burlap, a coarse, heavy cloth used for sacks and as backing for rugs and carpets.

New Zealand flax Common flax Hemp Needle grass

Until the early 20th century, all textiles were made from the fibers of plants or animals. To this day, plants continue to

provide more textile fibers than any other source. Cotton makes up the vast majority of natural fibers used in textiles.

Sisal is the toughest of all natural fibers and is used to make indoor rugs and mats. The sisal plant is native to Brazil, Mexico and parts of Africa.

Coir (coconut fiber) is used in making twine, doormats, brushes, mattresses, floor tiles and sacking.

Bamboo can be harvested without killing the fast-growing host plant. It is used to make clothing, hats and rugs.

WeavingWeaving is the process of making cloth (or other items like baskets) by crossing threads over and under each other. Three types of basic weaves have been used since ancient times. They are called the plain weave, the twill weave and the satin weave. All weaves use two sets of thread, the warp (vertical threads) and weft (horizontal threads).

Plain weave is the simplest and most common pattern.

The word cotton is derived from the Arabic “qutn” or “kutn,” which loosely translates as “fancy fabric.”

Today, there are about 39 known species of cotton, but only four are grown commercially for their fibers.

Grass, rush, hemp and sisal are used in making rope. In the first two, the entire plant is used for this purpose, while in the last two, only fibers from the plant are utilized.

Cotton, flax, jute and hemp fibers have all been used to make clothing. The fibers of the flax plant may be woven into linen — a strong fabric often used to make tablecloths, napkins, handkerchiefs and clothing.

Fibers from the stalks of plants such as hemp, flax and nettles are also known as “bast” fibers.

Fibers are the raw materials for all textiles. Some fibers occur in nature as fine strands.

Eli Whitney developed the cotton gin.

Cotton fibers produce soft, absorbent fabrics.

The people of ancient India were growing cotton to make cloth as early as 3000 B.C. On the other side of the world, the people of Peru were twisting cotton fibers into fishing nets in 2500 B.C., and by 1900 B.C., they were weaving them into cloth. Around A.D. 1000, people around the world were weaving large amounts of cotton. China began grow-ing cotton on a large scale around 1200. England and the American colonies began to weave cotton in the early 17th century.

Haida basket woven with spruce rootIn the 18th and 19th centuries, slave labor was used in

the United States to pick and process cotton.