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bed pillows
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bed pillows - Some of these weaves are ancient, developed on the shuttle looms of China and the handlooms of India, Greece, and Europe. In Europe and Asia the handloom is still used for the finest fabrics. Japan and China lead in the production of raw si_lk, with India, Italy, and France following. The United States is the largest importer. Sericulture (the culture of the si_lkworm) and the weaving of si_lk have been practiced in China from a remote period. Legend dates this back to 2640 B. C. , to Empress Si Ling-chi, who not only encouraged the culture of the si_lkworm but also developed the process of reeling from the cocoon. This was a closely guarded secret for some 3,000 years. si_lk seems to have been woven very early on the island of Kós, which Aristotle mentions, in a vague description of the si_lkworm, as the place where si_lk was first spun, In the 1st and 2d cent. A. D. si_lk fabrics imported to Greece and Rome were sold for fabulous prices. Up to the 6th cent. raw si_lk was brought from China, but death was the penalty for exporting si_lkworm eggs. About A. D. 550 two former missionaries to China, incited by Emperor Justinian, succeeded (says Procopius) in smuggling to Constantinople, in a hollow staff, both the eggs of the si_lkworm and the seeds of the mulberry tree. Byzantium became famous for splendid si_lken textiles and embroideries, used throughout medieval Europe for royal and ecclesiastical costumes and f_urnishings. In the 8th cent. the Moors began to carry the arts of si_lk culture and weaving across the northern coast of Africa and to Spain and Sicily, and in the 12th cent. Spain and Sicily were weaving si_lks of exquisite texture and design. Other areas of Europe subsequently became great weaving centers. Lucca, in N Italy, had established looms by the 13th cent. , and in the 14th cent. the city became famous for its materials and designs. Florence and Venice followed and wove sumptuous fabrics and velvets enriched with gold thread. Genoa’s velvets became well known. France established looms, and under Louis XIV’s minister Jean Baptiste Colbert it set the fashion with its beautiful si_lks. Lyons in S France became an important weaving center. Early attempts were made in England under Henry VI to establish the si_lk industry, but it was not until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when many French refugee weavers fled to England, that the industry received a real impetus. The French settled in Canterbury, Norwich, and other places; but it was in Spitalfields, London, that the industry became important. Many attempts were made to establish sericulture in the American colonies: inducements such as land grants and bounties were offered, and many mulberry trees were planted. In 1759 Georgia sold more than 10,000 lb (4,535 kg) of cocoons in London. Pennsylvania had a si_lk industry, fostered by Benjamin Franklin, until the Revolution. The high cost of labor seems to have been the main deterrent to the success of sericulture in America. Brocade: fabric, originally si_lk, generally reputed to have been developed to a high state of perfection in the 16th and 17th cent. in France, Italy, and Spain. In China the weaving of si_lk, which dates from the Shang dynasty, developed into complex patterns including moiré, damask, and brocade. Brocade is characterized by a compact warp-effect background with one or more fillings used in the construction to make the motif or figure. The filling threads, often of gold or silver in the original fabrics of this name, float in embossed or embroidered effects in the figures. Motifs may be of flowers, foliage, scrollwork, pastoral scenes, or other design. Its uses include curtaining, hangings, pill_ows, portieres, evening wraps, and church vestments. Similar techniques are used in the manufacture of brocades made of cotton and synthetic fibers. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the republic of Venice was the hub of Europe's trade with the East and a dominant power in the Mediterranean. The collaboration of bankers, merchants, and fine craftsmen had made the city the center for a number of luxury trades, among them the manufacture of si_lk and fine lace. Lace making in Venice maintained its high quality into the seventeenth century, even after the industry, challenged by competition in France and Spain, had declined in the rest of Italy. In Venice it was sustained by wealthy patrons and the strength of the lace-makers guilds. In buratto work, darning stitches are worked with a needle on fine gauze or net (called lacis) to create the pattern. A form of counted canvas embroidery, it is finer, looser, and more flexible than needlepoint. Buratto was used as border trim on clothing and various draperies. Stitched onto velvet, the gauze backing would sink into the pile and disappear from view, leaving the impression that the embroidered pattern was floating on the surface of the fabric. Bright colors and a vase-and-niche motif reveal a strong Turkish influence in the ten repeats of pattern in this length of buratto. It is still stitched to its original backing of blue paper, which protected the gauze from distortion when handled or rolled. Like the ancient Egyptians and the Chinese, pre-Columbian peoples interred their dead with f_urnishings for the afterlife. In coastal Peru's dry climate ancient textiles have survived in remarkable numbers, emerging from their long darkness with astonishing freshness of color. Some date to two thousand years before Spanish contact. Mantles, turbans, ponchos, shirts, and belts were wrapped in as many as four layers around the body to form a conical mummy bundle; a single burial might include as many as twenty pieces of clothing. This mantle, a precious early example of the weaver's craft, was found in the necropolis at Paracas on the south coast of Peru. Its vivid coloration is typical, as is its composition of native alpaca wool woven on cotton warps. Weaving in Peru goes back to about 2000 b. c. and displays considerable sophistication and technical expertise. This mantle is composed of two longitudinal pieces and the borders, which have been sewn together and then embroidered with stitches, such as stem and buttonhole, still used today in hand sewing. The design includes motifs typical of Paracas textiles: reversed interlocking figures, often with frontal heads, and composite animals. Here the double-headed serpent of the borders has a cat's head; another feline creature provides a secondary motif. These catlike creatures are probably jaguars, shamanic animals of ancient mythological lineage and a frequently used motif in pre-Columbian textiles. Great garden builders as well as warriors, certain Persian rulers were known to have had outstanding plant collections, particularly of the exotic tulip. They often commissioned arts that featured images of the flowers they grew and prized.
bed pillows 
