Saturday, May 23, 2009

Fabrics

I've started reading Fabrics by Marypaul Yates and its going to be very useful as a student and a design professional.

The chapters cover the following:

  • Aesthetics (Colour, Lighting, Texture, Pattern)
  • Sustainable Design
  • Fibres & Yarns (Great for M8!)
  • Fabric Structure (Wovens, Embroidered, Vinyl, Laces etc)
  • Fabric Designs
  • Colour Application (Colourfastness, Dyeing etc)
  • Finishing & Treatment
  • Fabric Applications
  • Performance, Testing & Flaws
  • The Fabric Industry (Designer's Sources, Fabric Manufacture, Role of fabric designers)
  • Professional Practices (Fabric selection, specification, costs and budgets)

There's also lots of close-up's of fabric types, weaves and styles and a full glossary at the back of the book. The only complaint I have is some of the interior pictures seem a little too traditional, but that's just personal taste.

I thought I'd include some of the glossary definitions relating to fibres which I haven't seen in the Rhodec texts.

  • Filament fibres are produced in a continuous form, which results in a smooth character e.g. silk.
  • Staple fibres, such as cotton, wool, linen, are naturally produced not in a continuous form like silk, but in ‘cut’ lengths that vary from plant to plant, or animal to animal.
  • Texturized, air-texturized or air-entangled yarns are synthetic filaments that have a mechanically achieved rough surface.
  • Plied yarn consists of one or more strands of finished yarn twisted together.
  • Bulk describes a yarn’s appearance of fullness with respect to its weight.
  • Loft refers to a yarn’s springiness and resilience to its bulk when squeezed.
  • Dimensional stability refers to a material’s ability to retain its shape and size after use or cleaning.

After all that work, it's nice to have a little eye candy of beautiful fabrics...






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