Velvet

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Velvet

velvet cushion cover, 17th century. Floral motifs were common in Ottoman art, as seen in the rich, stylized patterns here. Silk, cotton, metallic-wrapped thread, velvet, satin weave (warp direction horizontal). Textile Museum

Textile Museum

The Textile Museum is located in the Kalorama, Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., USA.The museum is "dedicated to furthering the understanding of mankind's creative achievements in the textile arts." Founded in 1925 by George Hewitt Myers, the museum normally receives between 25,000 and 30,000 visitors ea...
collections.]]

Velvet is a type of tufted fabric

Textile

A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by Spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn....
in which the cut thread

Yarn

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibers, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking....
s are very evenly distributed, with a short dense pile, giving it a distinct feel.

Composition
Velvet can be made from many different kinds of fibers.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Velvet'

Start a new discussion about 'Velvet'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Textile Museum

Textile

Yarn

Composition

Velvet can be made from many different kinds of fibers. It is woven on a special loom

Loom

A loom is a machine or device for weaving thread or yarn into textiles. Looms can range from very small hand-held frames, to large free-standing hand looms, to huge automatic mechanical devices....
that weaves two pieces of velvet at the same time. The two pieces are then cut apart and the two lengths of fabric are wound on separate take-up rolls. Velvet was very expensive and was among the luxury goods. Velvet is difficult to clean, but in modern times, dry cleaning

Dry cleaning

Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using an organic solvent rather than water. The solvent used is typically tetrachloroethylene , abbreviated "perc" in the industry and "dry-cleaning fluid" by the public....
is used.

Velvet is made, ideally, from silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from Pupa#Cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity ....
. Cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
can also be used, though this often results in a slightly less luxurious fabric. More recently, synthetic velvets have been developed, mostly polyester

Polyester

Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate ....
, nylon

Nylon

Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides and first produced on February 28, 1935 by Wallace Carothers at DuPont....
, viscose

Viscose

Viscose is a viscous organic liquid used to make rayon and cellophane. Viscose is becoming synonymous with rayon, a soft material, used in mostly tops, coats and jackets....
, acetate

Acetate

An acetate, or ethanoate, is either a salt or ester of acetic acid.In chemistry, the abbreviation Ac refers to the acetyl group. The anion and the functional group may be written as -OAc and AcO-, or OAc respectively....
and mixtures of different synthetics, or synthetics and natural fibers (eg. viscose and silk). Velvet can also be made from fibers such as linen

Linen

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
, mohair

Mohair

Mohair usually refers to a silk-like textile or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat. The word "mohair" was adopted into English before 1570 from the Arabic language mukhayyar, a type of haircloth, literally 'choice', from khayyara, 'he chose'....
and wool

Wool

Wool is the fiber derived from the specialized skin cells, called follicles, of animals in the Caprinae family, principally domestic sheep, but the hair of certain species of other Mammalia such as cashmere goat, llamas, rabbits and keeshonds may also be called wool....
. A cloth made by the Kuba

Kuba

Kuba may refer to:*Kuba, Tibet*Quba , capital of Quba Rayon, Azerbaijan*Quba Rayon, a district of Azerbaijan*Quba Khanate, an independent principality from 1747-1806, part of modern-day Azerbaijan...
people of the Democratic Republic of Congo from raffia is often referred to as "Kuba velvet"

Velours du Kasaï

Velours du Kasa? is a kind of textile fabric made in Kasai province, a province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . Traditionally, the weaving is done by men of the Shoowa from the Kuba ethnic group, while the embroidery is reserved to women....
.

A small percentage of lycra is used sometimes to give stretch.

History

Arms, Florence or Venice, 1440–1500]] The art of velvet-weaving probably originated in ancient Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" referred only to the valley lying between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal range; since then, it has been used for a larger area that today includes the Indian administerd state of Jammu and Kashmir consisting of the Kashmir...
around the beginning of the fourteenth century.

King Richard II of England directed in his will that his body should be clothed in velveto in 1399.

The earliest sources of European artistic velvets were Lucca

Lucca

Lucca is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca....
, Genoa

Genoa

Genoa is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of about 610,000 and the urban area has a population of about 900,000....
, Florence

Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
and Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
, and Genoa continues to send out rich velvet textures. Somewhat later the art was taken up by Flemish weavers, and in the 16th century Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
attained a reputation for velvets which was not inferior to that of the great Italian cities.

Velvet

Composition

History

See also

External links