” Damasks are constantly in design,” states Claire Vallis, head of style for UK-based Sanderson Style Group, which weaves damask materials throughout its portfolio of brand names. Likewise, Christopher Hyland— a designer understood for his myriad of damask styles utilized in prominent tasks– exclaims, “Damask rocks the ages, any ages!”
However what is damask, precisely? What’s its history? How is it made? What makes this elaborate, jacquard– patterned material so unique? And where is it finest utilized? We deal with these concerns and more with input from damask makers, interior designers, and other fans of the fabric.
What is damask? Where’s it from? And why is it called damask?
Damask is a special reversible weaving made with one warp thread and one weft thread, leading to a firmly woven material that includes a natural, balanced, and generally tone-on-tone print.
The history of damask spins all the method back to China, circa 300 BCE. However it wasn’t till it was established in Syria centuries later on that it genuinely struck its stride in appeal. Damask was called for the city of Damascus, Syria, where damask fabrics were made from the Middle Ages onward. Since of its place in the worldwide crossroads of the Middle East, Damascus was an active trading port on the Silk Roadway– and fittingly, early damasks were hand-woven in silk just.
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According to historians, damasks made their method to Europe in the 14th century, and there they were crafted on Italian draw looms, which enabled the development of more detailed damask patterns. Nevertheless, weaving damasks on standard looms showed tiresome and time consuming for weavers of the Middle Ages. In the early 19th century, the creation of the jacquard loom in France streamlined the procedure by presenting the weaving strategy utilized to make contemporary damasks. These electronic jacquard looms are power looms that can be configured for damask weaving– and they’re utilized for products beyond silk damask. Now damasks can likewise be available in other natural products, like cotton and wool, also artificial fibers like twill.
How is damask material made?
Rachel Doriss, professional fabric designer and style director at Pollack, discusses the procedure of building damask. “Damask materials in our market are constantly woven on jacquard looms. In basic, damasks are woven on loom setups with a high-end count in the warp and weft to attain information, saturated color, and satin building,” she states.
What sets damask materials apart from other kinds of materials is the contrast of pattern and ground both with color and building, she discusses. “A damask satin weave building is when you utilize a warp instructions satin in one position (let’s state the theme or the pattern), and a weft instructions satin in the ground,” she states. (For the unaware, warp yarns go vertically while weft yarns run horizontally.) “A satin building is identified by utilizing long drifts (the least quantity of interlacing), so the yarns show the light and have the most possible appeal. The contrast of these 2 satin building and constructions stresses the appeal, attains saturated color, and produces a three-dimensional result with the theme somewhat rising from the ground.”
And while silk damask was the initial, standard damask, Doriss states, “You can attain appeal with silk, mercerized cotton, worsted wool, rayon/viscose, and other filament manmade fibers.” She includes, “I personally like contrasting products and surface areas. A silk-and-wool damask is pure high-end. However I worth utilizing artificial fibers for expense and sturdiness.”
What are the specifying attributes of damask?
Generally damasks are a single color of yarn with numerous tones and textures to develop a tone-on-tone result, however it’s possible for the fiber material of contemporary damasks to be various colored. Damasks look like brocade in look and texture, and they’re both built on a jacquard loom. However while damask regularly includes single-color thread in a pattern that’s reversible, brocade functions numerous colored threads– generally including silver or gold, that makes it more pricey than damask. Brocade likewise has a looser weave, that makes it fray much easier than long lasting damask. A firmly woven material that’s likewise shiny due to its satin weaving strategy, damask is built with numerous layers of thread that leads to a thick, heavy, super-strong fabric that’s appropriate for a range of interior decoration and home decoration applications.