Adventures in Velvet Weaving
Suzi Gough, Online Guild
Well, there I was browsing through
the Convergence 2006 programme,
trying to select a workshop that would
be fun, challenging, and different.
Then I saw:
W317
Weaving Velvet
Barbara Setsu PickettWeave a macro
velvet on a 4-shaft loom and a voided velvet
sample on eight shafts. Learn to make your
own PVC bobbin rack to hold the pile warp.
Learn velvet structures by examining
Barbara’s collection as well as receiving
instructions on dyeing silk and adapting
standard weaving equipment
to velvet production.
Level: Intermediate.Materials fee: $35
Loom Optional
and I was hooked. I signed up not
knowing what macro velvet or voided
velvet were and not having the first
clue how velvet was woven. Then,
when I received word that I had made
it into the workshop, I offered to bring
a loom. I received a beautifully wound
warp already sleyed in a fine reed
with instructions to thread a voided
velvet with a 3/1 twill ground and
wind on. The fun had just begun!
I learned that velvet is a two-warp
fabric. The ground warp is usually
plain weave, twill, or satin and is used
to stabilize the supplementary, pile
warp. Once the loom is warped,
several picks of ground weft are
placed both before and after each pile
pick. No weft is used for the pile
picks: instead, the pile warps are
raised and a thin metal rod is placed
in the shed. When the weaving has
progressed so that there are several
metal rods sandwiched between
ground weave picks, the pile warp
threads over the rod closest to the
breast beam are cut and the rod is
removed. Weaving continues with the
rods being cut out and re-inserted
one at a time. Each rod is grooved
along the top edge to make cutting
easier and the height of the rod
governs the height of the pile.
Technically, velvet has a pile height of
0.36 cm or less: if the pile height is
greater than 0.36 cm, the fabric is
called plush.
It doesn’t sound hard to weave
velvet, and it isn’t, if you are working
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Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 221, March 2007
Barbara Setsu Pickett
Barbara's velvet sample2 – cut,
uncut, voided
Right: Barbara's velvet sample1
– cut, uncut, voided
Below: Velvet sample preliminary
design sketches
Below right: Velvet sample woven
by Barbara from the design
Right: Macro velvet sample 1
woven by Suzi Gough.
A mixture of cut (solid or plain
velvet) and uncut velvet at the
bottom, with a small section at the
top where only some of the pile
warp threads on each pile pick
were picked up (this is called
voided velvet since some areas are
free of pile).
Photos: Suzi Gough
at a large, or macro, scale. The
macro velvet we wove was sett at 18
ground warps and six pile warps per
inch. The four-shaft loom was
threaded straight draw with the pile
warps on shaft 1 and the ground
warps on shafts 2, 3, and 4. We put in
six or seven rods per inch, with three
ground picks between each rod, or
pile pick. We learned to squeeze in
the first pick of ground weft, to beat
hard on the second ground pick and
semi-hard on the third ground pick. It
is important that the ground weft be
packed in tightly so that the pile weft
is secured. The photo (left) shows my
macro velvet sample1 which is a
mixture of cut (solid or plain velvet)
and uncut velvet at the bottom, with a
Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 221, March 2007
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variation in the pile was created
during warping by gradually changing
the colours of the sewing thread.
Our second sample (see photo top
right), was finer, with a ground warp
of 20/2 cotton sett at 60 epi and a pile
warp sett at 15 pile units per inch
(each unit was four strands of 20/2
cotton). The
8-shaft loom was threaded so that the
pile warps were threaded on shafts 1
to 4 and the ground warps were
threaded straight draw on shafts 5 to
8. The resultant threading was: 5, 6,
pile, 7, 8, 5, 6, pile, 7, 8, 5, 6, pile, 7,
8, 5, 6, pile, 7, 8….. The pile warps
were arranged in blocks, so that four
pile warps were entered on shaft 1,
followed by ten pile warps on shaft 3,
four pile warps on shaft 2, and ten
pile warps on shaft 4 before the
sequence repeated. Again, we wove
three ground picks between each rod
for the pile warp, but this time the
ground weave was a 3/1 twill. The lift
sequence repeated after twelve
ground picks and four rods, so it
required more attention and took
longer to master. On top of that, you
had to focus on which pile shafts you
were lifting to create the voided velvet
design you had in mind. Needless to
say, the weaving went considerably
slower than before.
Sample 3, however, made sample
2 look like a piece of cake. This was
another voided velvet sample but with
a 5/1 irregular satin ground and 180
ground warps (54/2 silk) and 30 pile
warp units per inch (3 strands of fine,
2-ply silk). Even though the treadling
sequence was not complicated, the
sheds were small, the warp threads
were microscopic and prone to
breaking and weaving progressed at
a snail’s pace. The tiny sample (right)
is only 3 cm high by 5 cm wide but it
took at least two hours and all of my
patience to weave and I didn’t even
attempt to cut the pile. Pile cutting at
this scale is a finely-honed art in, and
of, itself.
Like sample 3, velvet is traditionally
woven with silk. Today, however,
materials such as rayon, viscose,
acetate, wool, cotton, linen and manmade fibres are used. It is the choice
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Left: Sample 2
Below: Sample 3
of pile yarn that dictates the character
of the cloth. That character is
enhanced, though, by the variety of
textures that can be created with cut
pile, uncut pile and voided areas. Cut
pile has a greater sheen and appears
darker because the light striking the
pile is absorbed. Light is reflected by
uncut pile, so it has a more matte
appearance and appears lighter. Cut
pile also appears to have a slightly
lower pile height than does uncut pile.
Velvet pile can be cut to various
heights, the pile can be spaced to
produce spots or horizontal or vertical
lines and both the ground fabric and
the pile can be woven to be
transparent or solid or anything in
between. Pile colours can be varied,
the pile can be woven in block
designs or in simple or intricate
figures using either pickup techniques
or a Jacquard loom. Velvet can be
elaborate or simple, it can be suitable
for coronation robes or carpet – the
variations are endless.
Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 221, March 2007
But, before you start to weave
velvet, you have to warp your loom.
First, you must estimate the pile
warp, the length of which is a function
of pile picks per inch and rod height,
and is at least six times the ground
warp length. If you are weaving solid
velvet, the pile warp can then be
wound on a second warp beam. For
voided velvet, though, you need
control of individual pile warps, so
they must be wound individually on
spools or bobbins. A contra, or bobbin
rack, is used to separate and order
the pile warps which can easily
number 1,000 or more. Our tutor,
Barbara Setsu Pickett, has devised a
collapsible contra which is based on
the Japanese and Chinese bobbin
rack systems and is made of a PVC
pipe frame supporting an egg crate
lighting grid. The photo (p.11 top left)
shows the contra in use on a loom
set up to weave Sample 2. (The
cones hanging at the front of the
contra are tensioning the floating
selvedges. The floating selvedge is
Left: Contra for sample 2
Below: Contra for sample 3
threaded through the top of both
cones and the extra is wound around
the base of the first cone. The second
cone is then slid down on top of the
first to secure the thread). The photo
(p.11 right) shows the contra used for
Sample 3. Here, the pile warps are
wound onto sewing-machine bobbins
which are suspended on rods
supported by the wooden frame. The
bobbins are weighted and
counterweighted with small lead
weights so that they unwind evenly.
Consider warping and then weaving
22 in wide velvet with fifty or more
rods to the inch and it is not hard to
understand why Mr. Must, the last of
the Coggeshall weavers, was happy
to weave four yards per week1. At a
fine scale, velvet weaving is an
extremely time-consuming
undertaking which is why almost all
velvet is commercially woven today.
Commercial looms weave two velvet
fabrics face to face at the same time,
a principle patented by Jean Baptiste
Martin in 1833. Martin also developed
the first mechanical velvet loom in the
late 1840s 2.
Prior to the 1840s, though, all
velvet was hand-woven. Velvet
weaving actually dates back to at
least 809 AD, where 500 lengths of
velvet are listed on an inventory of
the possessions of Caliph Haroun
al-Rashid of Egypt. By the tenth
century, velvet weaving was well
established in the Middle East and
Eastern Europe, with the most skilled
weavers coming from Turkey, Greece
and Cyprus. In 1266, many velvet
weavers fled the French and
emigrated to continental Europe,
especially northern Italy. Velvet came
to England soon thereafter when King
Edward’s tailor purchased a velvetupholstered bed for him in Paris in
1278. Velvet weaving was also highly
developed in Moorish Spain, an
ancient and major centre of
production. Italy and Spain remained
the primary European velvetproducing centres throughout the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when
figured-velvet weaving reached its
peak. Today, hand-woven velvet is
produced by only a few ateliers in
Italy and France.3,4
After three days of weaving velvet
on looms set up with contra racks and
then looking at slides of the very
complicated set-ups that some of the
remaining ateliers use, I saw a slide
of velvet weaving on an inkle loom. I
guess that proves that velvet can be
woven without special equipment and
that velvet weaving runs the gamut
from simple to complex! I will weave
velvet again in the future, but only at
a macro scale. I’ll leave the fine,
figured velvet to the masters.
Bibliography
1 The Velvet Weaving Industry – its
decline in Essex. An interview with the
last Coggeshall weavers from the Essex
County Standard,
18 July 1911.
2 The Evolution of Velvet Weaving.
Handwoven, September/October 1992,
Volume XIII, Number 4, pp. 46-47.
Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 221, March 2007
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