New Young Writers on Wool

Abstract

I am fascinated by performance architecture. My particular interest is in theatrical qualities of spaces and the beauty of the processes happening within the space. I felt that the wool manufacturing process is a spectacular performance of sound, texture, and density of light—hence it could be reinterpreted through architecture. The essay was written to celebrate the theatricality of the wool manufacturing process.     

34—THE CONTROL OF THE SHAPE AND DIMENSIONS OF KNITTED WOOL FABRICS

An account is given of an investigation of the use of steam treatments as a means of controlling the shape and dimensions of plain-knitted wool fabrics, firstly by allowing the fabric to relax towards its dimensionally stable state during steaming and secondly by steam-setting the fabric while it is held at a predetermined width. This steam-setting procedure is compared with two permanent-setting treatments for wool—a chemical-setting treatment and setting in boiling water.

Of the two methods of producing a dimensionally stable fabric, namely, by relaxation and by setting, the relaxation method is by far the more effective. The most important result of this work is that knitted wool fabrics—whether unset, steam-set, or permanently set—will always approach their completely relaxed shape and dimensions after only a couple of minutes' gentle agitation in water. It is concluded that conventional methods of shaping knitted wool fabrics and garments, which rely principally on steam-setting the fabric or garment to a size and shape different from its relaxed size and shape, are not likely to produce garments that have good dimensional stability and good shape-retention properties.

The ineffectiveness of permanent-setting agents in producing dimensionally stable knitted garments is contrasted with the relative effectiveness of these agents in producing pleats and permanent creases in wool cloths. This difference in behaviour is explained in terms of the different levels of individual fibre strains involved.     

Joseph Conrad's “The Planter of Malata”: Timing,and the Forgotten Adventures of the Silk Plant “Arghan”

Abstract

“Endless Possibilities” is the story of the many paths merino wool can take from its birth. Written from the perspective of the wool itself, the qualities of the fabric and techniques used to transform it are explored. Recent designer collections are secretly referenced using only words instead of the images we have become accustomed to. Wool may sometimes be cleverly hidden, but it's still around. Whether we notice it is a different matter.     

Maja Bajevic: The Matrix of Memory

Abstract

This paper deals with three performance pieces by the Bosnian artist Maja Bajevic, entitled Women at Work (1999–2001). The artist performed these works in public spaces, in collaboration with Muslim women who were war refugees from Srebrenica. The first piece Women at Work—Under Construction took place in Sarajevo (1999), the second subtitled The Observers was performed in a French castle (2000), and the last in the series, Women at Work—Washing Up was situated in women's public bath in Istanbul (2001). All three performances were delicately interlaced with Bajevic's inimitable politics of domesticity. In her solo pieces and those realized in cooperation with other women, her politics manifest through the public performance of diverse manual activities, such as embroidering, sewing or laundering. These habitual female proceedings, repetitive and monotonous, are carried out in public spaces so as to lay bare women's traditional activities for coping with absences. The theme of absence is at the core of Maja Bajevic's art. Most of her works relate to subjective “voids,” distances, digressions, separations and the plausibility of loss; they refer to absent “spaces,” the spaces that may have existed or have been imagined as homes or homelands.     

Lace from the Victoria and Albert Museum,Clare Browne

Abstract

Maya Deren's films employ still and moving fabric in order to articulate the changing relationships among viewer, actor, and director. Deren's use of fiber-based material is an overlooked aspect of her cinematic work. In this essay I explore the parallel between the medium of film—the screen, as well as the representation of fabric on film—and fabric in several of Deren's films, primarily her well-known 1943 film Meshes of the Afternoon. This is a generative parallel because a comparison with fabric introduces the idea that film could be conceived of as, simultaneously, a tactile material and a legitimate art form to mid-century film audiences. Film's relation to the body is traditionally distanced: the audience sits far from the screen in order to view it; the actors’ bodies exist only as intangible arrangements of light and shadow. Reading film with an awareness of the characteristics and connotations of moving fabric recasts cinema in light of the screen's status as fabric, a potentially tactile medium.     

Ann Hamilton: The Common S E N S E

Abstract

Navajo-Churro sheep provided a traditional fiber resource for handwoven textiles produced by Navajo people. Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers seeking riches in the American Southwest introduced their Spanish Churro sheep, a hardy desert variety whose descendants are the breed known today as Navajo-Churro. As a stable base for Navajo pastoralism, these sheep adapted to the harsh desert landscape of Navajo homelands and provided wealth, food, wool, and social cohesion for the Navajo people. After the mid-nineteenth century when more Anglo-Americans migrated into the Southwest, vast herds of Navajo-Churro sheep were reduced to near extinction through outright destruction and by crossbreeding with high-production breeds. During the 1970s, Navajo and non-Navajo herders and weavers joined in coordinated efforts to return the Navajo-Churro breed to Navajo lands and people. The contemporary Navajo organization Diné be' iiná (abbreviated to DBI and translated as The Navajo Life way) provided leadership for the return of Navajo-Churro sheep. In this article, we explore how the return of Navajo-Churro sheep and wool can strengthen cultural identity, rekindle ideological teachings, and revitalize material culture. The analysis provides an example of development intervention at the level of raw materials, as opposed to design, product development, or marketing intercession with textile traditions.     

Effect of Lipase Pretreatment on the Dyeability of Wool Fabric

Abstract

The effect of lipase pretreatment on the dyeability of wool fabric with reactive dyes is thoroughly investigated. Two enzymes are applied, lipase type II and lipolase 100 L, type EX. The effect of treatment conditions such as temperature, time, and concentration of enzyme on the dyeability of wool fabric is studied. A comparative study between exhaustion and padding techniques of treatment is investigated. Kinetic investigations are also given on the dyeing process of wool fabric with reactive dyes. The treatments revealed improvement in the dyeability of wool with reactive dyes. The use of the enzyme pretreatment enables wool dyeing under mild temperature conditions with increasing dye consumption and an increase of the rate of dyeing. This is reflected as energy saving and reduction of pollution impact.     

2—PERMANENT-PRESS EFFECTS IN WOOL: PART V: METHODS OF STABILIZING SET

Shrink-resist wool set in the normal way can lose wanted set or acquire unwanted set during machine-washing and tumble-drying because the molecular-bond rearrangements responsible for setting can still occur during the laundering cycle. The set can be stabilized to withstand such laundering by any of the following methods:

1. the inhibition of thiol-disulphide interchange by:

   1. removing ionized thiol groups, or

   2. converting disulphide bonds to non-interchangeable links, such as —S—, —SCH₂S—;

2. the introduction of new cross-links; or

3. denaturation to form structures that are slow to rearrange during washing.

The stability of set is enhanced by a combination of the methods because these operate by different mechanisms. Prevention of thiol-disulphide interchange appears to be more important during washing, whereas the presence of cross-links appears to be more important to aid recovery during tumble-drying.     

Low Temperature Chrome Dyeing of Wool

Abstract

This work reports an attempt to promote wool dyeing with chrome dyes at low temperature (90°C), using glucose in the chroming stage to minimize wool damage and save energy without any adverse effect on the fastness properties of the dyed wool.

The benefits of this new process are to obtain satisfactory tensile strength and less solubility properties than those obtained through the conventional dyeing method at the boil. There is a slight decrease in the cystine content of the dyed wool whereas the basic and aromatic amino acids are not affected. Glucose, being a reducing agent, competes with cystine in the overall reduction process of dichromate.     

Modern Fashions for Modern Women: The Evolution of New York Sportswear in the 1930s

Abstract

This article aims to establish the significance and diversity of sportswear styles designed and manufactured in New York during the 1930s. It will assert that the 1930s was a crucial period in New York sportswear's evolution. This decade tends to be overlooked by fashion historians, who either make generalisations about American fashion in the 1930s or focus on developments in the 1940s. This article will demonstrate that the Depression era was central to sportswear's emergence as a key form of affordable, mass-produced clothing, which comprised simple, interchangeable garments that could be worn in a variety of settings.

This article will establish the importance of the 1930s as a period when New York sportswear was crystallised as a design and marketing ideal. This was due to both the economic pressures of the 1930s, which made cheaper mass-produced clothing more appealing, and to shifts within the fashion industry, which saw more co-ordinated attempts to promote indigenous design.

Sportswear will be discussed in terms of three key categories: active sportswear, town and country wear and resort wear. Surviving dress from American and British collections will be analysed to demonstrate the importance of these categories, and the ways in which they came to form an ideal of Americanness through their design aesthetic, as well as the way they were advertised.

Garments by manufacturers such as Davidow, and designers such as Clare Potter, will be contrasted with examples from London and Paris to show how New York was gradually to evolve its own distinct styles, which would in the following decade be characterised by the term the 'American Look'. The clean lines and machine aesthetic of this style were mythologised as an expression of American national identity — as practical, rational and authentic.

As the 1930s wore on, New York sportswear was increasingly linked to modern lifestyles, and thus was portrayed as ideal for women who were active, whether as college girls, housewives, career women, or through travel. The notion of femininity that it evoked linked to white, middle-class ideals, and existing assumptions about American fashion's 'democratic' approach that eschewed the élitism of European fashion therefore need to be questioned.     

Text(ile)s: How to Fabric(ate) Yourself a Body without Organs

Abstract

From momentary metaphorical allusions to “unraveling,” or “stitching,” to more elaborately built philosophical models that directly employ the likenesses of folded and/or patchworked cloth, the regular repetition of fabric(ated) references—punctuated by the physical refrain of turning, cloth-like pages—in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari cleverly makes the relationships between “our bodies,” which are largely understood through clothed pleats, and the matter-content-expression of “their books” exceedingly palpable.

This article aims to unpack this aspect of Deleuze and Guattari's projects and to explore the implications it has not only for our immediate experiences of “the book” and/or “the textile,” but also for the traditional plays between man, beast, and technology that have been historically related through the technology of cloth and which have served to, in part, justify the human's neatly ordered dominance in the world.

As a means of embarking on this project, the article considers Deleuze and Guattari's works alongside a cast of other figures preoccupied with various fabrics, namely the matador, various (textile) artists including Eran Schaerf, and even one's own self and wardrobe, and recasts all of these figures' texts and textiles as “text(ile)s.”     

Webs of Wrath: Terrible Textiles from the War of Troy

Abstract

The legends of the War of Troy are among the most enduring of all the world's great tales. Besides thrilling action and striking characters, these epics and dramas record vivid details of Mediterranean life stretching back to the Bronze Age.

Like many textile researchers, I have been poring over these stories for what they reveal about cloth's place and meaning in ancient times. In this article, I will discuss references that suggest that clothing fitted into a broad spectrum of fiber technology that transcended gender, and stretched from engineering to war, economics to aesthetics. Rather than being marginalized as soft, superfluous “women's work,” textiles could have terrifying power: as weapons, as agents of torment, and as prizes so alluring as to drive greed out-of-bounds.

Among the fabric/fiber images running through the Trojan stories are deadly slings, treacherous snares and nets, and crimson carpets marking a path to murder. These, and other examples, show how richly ambiguous textiles could be in the Classical world—far more protean than the pastel tones of Penelope's patient weaving.

Each of these “webs of wrath” will be discussed in turn, and illustrated with quotes from the Greek texts, as well as black-and-white line drawings from art objects of the period.     

Characterisation of the S-Carboxymethyl Extract of Wool Using Small Format Alkaline Urea-PAGE/SDS-PAGE Followed by Silver Staining

Abstract

Alkaline urea-PAGE/SDS-PAGE, when used in a novel format which was significantly smaller than that employed by earlier workers, and when followed by silver staining, resulted in the detection of excellently resolved protein components from S-carboxymethyl reductive extracts of very small wool samples, even samples as small as an individual wool fibre. The silver stained two-dimensional gel patterns exhibited significant improvements compared to the fluorograph gel patterns of earlier workers based on the presence of radiolabel incorporated within the S-carboxymethyl moiety. The silver staining resulted in the visualisation of numerous protein components, and in the region of the gel pattern expected to contain the high-sulfur protein fraction, there appeared more major components than the number of high-sulfur protein components usually displayed in fluorograph patterns. The relative amount of the high-sulfur protein fraction in the final silver stained gel pattern could be boosted, if desired, if the gel was loaded not with the whole wool extract but with the filtrate resulting from the passage of the whole extract through a centrifugal ultrafilter.     

Dust to Dust: A Particular History of Khaki

Abstract

This article explores the word “khaki” in various contexts, focusing on its etymological association with dust. It is not a technical textile history, though elements of process, production, and consumption are discussed as critical to the formation of what khaki means. The article emphasizes the associative power of khaki—in production, in use, and on disposal and dispersal—from the late nineteenth century to the Second World War and in a variety of European and international contexts. Focusing on ideas of the particle and processes of fragmentation, it is a teasing out of what might be described as khaki's poetics.     

Chemical,morphological and structural characteristics of crossbred wool fibers

Abstract

Crossbreeding of a local sheep called Ghezel thick wool with Arkharmerino fine wool is one of the interest studies in the last decade to improve the local sheep’s products quality. In this study, the chemical and mechanical properties of Arkharmerino, Ghezel and their first and second-generation wool fibers were investigated. The diameter, length and tensile properties of wool fibers were studied. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray spectrum were also performed to evaluate the morphological and physical characteristics of all samples. The results showed that crossbreeding Ghezel ewes with Arkharmerino rams led to improving the wool fiber characteristics from chemical and physical properties points of view in the final application. The higher fineness, higher length, lighter color and higher tenacity were resulting from Arkharmerino–Ghezel in the second generation in comparison with Ghezel wool fibers.     

Exotic Quilt Patterns and Pattern Names in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

A strong characteristic of American popular culture in the 1920s and 1930s was its fascination with all things “oriental,” or generally exotic. It was expressed in a multitude of areas, including furniture, fashion, movies and architecture. It was also evident in quiltmaking, an extremely popular pastime of the era, in the preponderance of patchwork patterns that had an exotic theme or name. Sometimes the designs of these patterns directly reflected their exotic names; most often they did not. The reasons for the popularity of exotic pattern names are varied. Certainly, pattern designers were capitalizing on the fashion for anything oriental. But, as this paper will propose, ladies' magazine publishers and quilt column writers also were reacting to Americans' ambivalence about Asians—their fear of the “yellow peril” mixed with their admiration for Eastern design. By naming and renaming patterns and, more importantly, by mixing oriental, “colonial,” and modern imagery and verbiage, they diluted the negative connotations of the exotic and potentially made it more palatable to the tradition-centered quiltmaking world.     

Effect of Transglutaminase Enzyme on Physico-mechanical Properties of Rambouillet Wool Fiber

ABSTRACT

Rambouillet wool fiber was scoured and treated with transglutaminase (TG) enzyme for different concentrations and duration at neutral pH at 45°C. The physical, mechanical, dyeing, and antimicrobial properties of the wool fiber before and after enzymatic treatment were evaluated as per standard methods. Results inferred that TG enzyme-treated wool fiber sample showed improvement in softness, luster, and tensile strength in comparison with scoured wool fiber. It is found that 0.5% TG enzyme treatment at 45°C for 60 min at pH 7 was an optimum condition. Scanning electron microscope images also confirmed the flattened and smooth scales of wool fiber after enzymatic treatment.     

Investigation of effects of protease enzyme produced by Bacillus subtilis 168 E6-5 and commercial enzyme on physical properties of woolen fabric

Abstract

Wool is one of the most important fibers in textile industry, and has been commonly used for producing value added products due to its properties of lightness, warmth, softness, and smoothness. However, the special scale structure in wool cuticle can cause felting shrinkage of wool fabrics. Proteases have been widely used to modify the surface of wool to prevent wool felting, due to their ability to catalyze the hydrolysis of peptide bonds in wool scales. Although the treatment of wool with proteases was considered as an environmentally friendly technique to provide wool fabrics with shrink resistance properties, proteases exhibited low efficacy in removing the cuticle scales because of the highly cross-linked barriers. In this study, wool fabric was treated with protease enzyme obtained from novel isolated bacteria and commercial protease enzyme, and the results were compared. The tear strength, pilling changes in ΔE values, whiteness and yellowness values of wool were controlled. Results showed that treatment with Bacillus subtilis 168 E6-5 protease enzyme yielded improvements in the physical properties of wool fabric compared with commercial enzyme.