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THE ART AND TECHNOLOGY OF JACQUARD WEAVES
R. Alan Donaldson, Professor

Creative designs come from a variety of sources and materials. The jacquard fabric on the left ("PEACE") was woven on the College's Dornier rapier loom mounted with a state-of-the-art, electronically controlled 5,120-hook Staübli monobloc jacquard head.

The wonderful image comes from a digital photograph taken during a recent visit to Monet's garden, in Giverny, France. The picture was first manipulated using Adobe Photoshop® graphics software, to increase color definition and dark-light contrast.

The next step was to introduce the modified image to a professional textile CAD system, where it was first scaled, in terms of ends and picks per inch in the loom and overall size. Color-reduction then took place in order to compress the mosaic of pixilated colors in the original picture, from around 240 to only 43, without materially altering the original color balance, depth and hue. A specifically designed library of no less than 210 "tapestry" color-and-weave structures was then created, each one projecting a different hue and texture. From this, 43 structures were selected which most closely portrayed the actual colors in the original photograph, and whose textures best represented the garden theme.

The 4,800-end, polyester warp is composed of only four 260 denier continuous filament yarns, in the pattern sequence: dark green, mustard, deep red and navy, set at 84 ends per inch, while the filling consists of only two 650 denier, air-textured polypropylene yarns: white and black, followed by a fine black stitching pick of 150 denier polyester.
In order to retain the "artist's touch", much trial and error was exercised in the weaving of this piece, so that optimum weave constructions could be picked to give the best color likeness and to devote greater time to overall esthetics and less to the tedium of color-matching. The state-of-the-art advances in such electronics and technology can lead to faster and more accurate fabric creations in the woven art and the textile market place, in concurrence with today's consumer expectations.

Title of this artwork is "PEACE".
Showing close-up detail.

"AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN" was created in memory of a splendid sunset, seen on a cold November afternoon, in East Lothian, Scotland.
The photograph "The Red-Hot Tree" because, as the setting sun went behind the tree, the trunk itself appeared as though it were red-hot.
I thought the scene would surely find its reincarnation in the form of a stained-glass window - but instead, it has evolved as part one of a pair of recently created jacquard tapestries; the other being entitled: "AND IN THE MORNING".
The constructional technique is similar to that of the first piece, set in Monet's garden, but this one makes a much bolder statement, framing the majesty of the setting sun behind the silhouetted trees, as it marks the end of another clear November afternoon.

". . . AND IN THE MORNING" is the complement to, "AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN . . .", and is based upon another personal photograph called, simply: "Tree".
The tree in question grew outside a house in East Douglas, Massachusetts. This picture was taken in the rising dawn mists on another November day in 1966.

The two pieces form a poignant statement about the shortness of life and remembrance of things past -- particularly appropriate in our present time of uncertainty, and also reminding us that it is not only we humans who are at risk -- but the wonderful trees and those very sunsets and sunrises,themselves! It is a wake-up call to all of us, as the stewards of the Earth.
The construction involves a number of textural weave variations in an attempt to create the feeling of "being there".

College of Textiles
P.O. Box 8301
Raleigh, NC 27695-8301
Telephone: (919) 515-6646
FAX: (919) 515-3733
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Last Site Revision:
October 3, 2002