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Joined: Mar 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
I found this word in a paper written by one of my great aunts. She was an art student in London in the 1920s and her papers included many life studies and designs for fabrics. The designs had a marked art-deco flavour as I guess you would expect. She also had a penchant for sketching film-stars, I would think copied from ‘photos, but they seem good to my untutored eye.
Du"pi*on (?), n. [F. doupion, It. doppione, fr. doppio double, L. duplus. See Double, and cf. Doubloon.] A double cocoon, made by two silkworms. A rough silk fabric made from the threads of such cocoons.
“Dupioni (sometimes spelled 'douppioni' or 'dupion'), is a lustrous silk often woven from two different colors of threads, so that it shimmers or changes color in the light. Dupioni is made from an irregular, rough silk reeled from double cocoons or cocoons spun side-by-side which are interlocked, making it necessary to reel them together. Usually brightly colored, it has a moderately crisp drape, fairly reflective luster, and a nubby texture. It is crisp to the touch and doesn't wrinkle badly or hold a crease well. It is reversible, not particularly stretchy, and relatively easy to sew.”
I can’t see how the two threads can be dyed different colours if they are interlocked. Trick o’ the trade no doubt. But then I don’t know much about silk manufacture, can anyone explain further?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear dxb: I have seen slubs, thick places in home-made yarn when my wife was spinning wool from her sheep. With regard to the silk, I wonder if the cocoons could be dyed different colors before the spinning.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
dxb, since each stand of silk fiber is about half to one fourth the thinkness of a strand of hair, sink is rarely make from a single strand, but is made from 2 to 20 or so strands spun together. i know slubbed silk (i had, as a teen, a 'shell'-a simple sleeveless top made from a scrap of slubbed silk) but it didn't not have the shimmer effect you spoke of. I would guess it either is double strand is dyed different colors, and then the 4 (2 sets of double) strand are then spun, or the different colors also could have been warp and weft of the woven fabric, but the slubs in the silk i had were all horizonatal, non were verticle. but it did have the crisp, but still drapable hand that is described. Habutexiles http://habutextiles.com is the most recent site i have found about spinning/weaving silk, and i didn't see anything there about duponi silk. (nor have i ever heard of it.)
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
From a commercial site:
"The weave of dupioni silk contains minor irregularities. These are characteristics of fine silk yarn and should not be regarded as faults. Dupion silk is dyed and woven by hand and consequently the colors may vary slightly from those of the sample.
Vegetable dyes are used in the dying process to compliment the natural silk. These dyes, however, have a low light fastness and consequently fading will take place when the silk is exposed to strong, natural and artificial light. To enhance the lustre and to help protect the silk we strongly recommend that all curtains and blinds are interlined."
Hmm--shouldn't that have been dyEing process?
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
dyEing process
Merriam-Webster agrees with you.
My grandfather was a dyer for Coats and Clarke back in the auld country. Their motto was:
We live to dye and we dye to live.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
As champion of le mot juste, there is another egregious error:
"the dying process to compliment the natural silk."
The word should have been "complEment".
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
You're right, Dr. Bill! AUGH, I cannot believe I didn't see that!!!
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Dear of troy and Jackie, thank you for that information. I remembered being taken to a silk worm farm once when I was a boy and could not imagine from what I remembered how it would have been possible to dye the individual threads for this type of material (dupion silk) in two different colours. From what you have supplied it seems that the twin thread is really coincidental to the two colours. The material could equally well be one colour, or a non-dupion silk could have threads dyed different colours. The real distinction of the dupion silk is the natural variation in thickness.
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