Friday, July 31, 2009
Louisa Frances Pesel 1899
Louisa Frances Pesel was an embroidery designer in her own right who studied under Lewis F Day, however she was better known during her lifetime as a writer, historian and producer of numerous books on the history of embroidery, she was also a great disseminator of embroidery patterns that she collected in her books, from all corners of the world.
She published hundreds of embroidery patterns, many having languished in obscurity at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her books proved to be an invaluable source for both amateur and professional designer and maker. Titles that she published over the decades included: English Embroidery, Historical Designer for Embroidery & Linen Cross Stitch, Stitches from Old English Embroideries, Stitches from Eastern Embroideries, Stitches from Western Embroideries.
She was particularly keen on promulgating English embroidery, emphasising patterns and motifs produced in the seventeenth century. However, she was also aware that embroidery should have a contemporary perspective and produced a number of modern designs herself which were also available to the general public through her publications.
Embroidery had taken its time to be recognised as an original craft subject as opposed to a filler for the spare time of amateur women. It took great strides during the Arts & Crafts period and was challenged and supported by colleges and art schools across Britain. The Glasgow School of Art under Francis Newbery was particularly well known for its embroidery and applique work. Glasgow in fact made sure that embroidery even merited its own department.
However, without the scholastic discipline of designers and writers like Pesel, who over the decades were able to amass much of the amateur and unknown design work from centuries of European and cultures further afield, the discipline would have been much poorer and would lack the historical dimension that people like Pesel found so important as a support and reference for the contemporary world of both amateur and professional embroidery.
These books, most now no longer in print, should be valued for the energy and research capabilities of women like Pesel, who spent decades amassing often obscure design work. They should be considered a valuable reference source for anyone interested in the history of embroidery.
She published hundreds of embroidery patterns, many having languished in obscurity at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her books proved to be an invaluable source for both amateur and professional designer and maker. Titles that she published over the decades included: English Embroidery, Historical Designer for Embroidery & Linen Cross Stitch, Stitches from Old English Embroideries, Stitches from Eastern Embroideries, Stitches from Western Embroideries.
She was particularly keen on promulgating English embroidery, emphasising patterns and motifs produced in the seventeenth century. However, she was also aware that embroidery should have a contemporary perspective and produced a number of modern designs herself which were also available to the general public through her publications.
Embroidery had taken its time to be recognised as an original craft subject as opposed to a filler for the spare time of amateur women. It took great strides during the Arts & Crafts period and was challenged and supported by colleges and art schools across Britain. The Glasgow School of Art under Francis Newbery was particularly well known for its embroidery and applique work. Glasgow in fact made sure that embroidery even merited its own department.
However, without the scholastic discipline of designers and writers like Pesel, who over the decades were able to amass much of the amateur and unknown design work from centuries of European and cultures further afield, the discipline would have been much poorer and would lack the historical dimension that people like Pesel found so important as a support and reference for the contemporary world of both amateur and professional embroidery.
These books, most now no longer in print, should be valued for the energy and research capabilities of women like Pesel, who spent decades amassing often obscure design work. They should be considered a valuable reference source for anyone interested in the history of embroidery.
Andre Durenceau design work 1928
The Art Deco design spanned two different and distinct styles within one overall genre. Whereas other decorative movements tended towards a particular style, medium or subject, the decorative movement that dominated the 1920s and 1930s was much more fluid and varied.
The Art Deco movement was an incorporation of both the previous design style of Art Nouveau with its dependence on the floral and to some extent the geometric, and the leading art movements of the early twentieth century, particularly the abstract ideas of Cubism and the geometrical ideas of Constructivism which were digested and then reissued by the Bauhaus.
Andre Durenceau design work 1928
The two major influences on the Art Deco decorative style, that of Art Nouveau and Modernism, did not clash with each other, or even try to cancel each other out, but in fact they came together to create a seamless design style that was able to incorporate traditional floral work, abstraction and minimalism in the one overall style that became Art Deco.
It must be remembered that designers tend to section off the look or style of an art movement, without necessarily taking on the philosophy, purpose or meaning of that movement. Art Deco designers were able to incorporate the look of Modernism because it gave the decorative effect of being both painterly, but also contemporary. It worked particularly well with floral based design work as the florals were still recognisable, but were abstracted enough to appeal to the new world of the 1920s and 1930s that was being set out by designers, manufacturers and retailers.
Andre Durenceau design work 1928
Extreme geometrical abstraction worked very well for the design world and whether it was used for textiles, ceramics, carpetry or marquetry inlaid work, the public were willing to embrace the style within interiors and accessories, where they might have been more reluctant if it were represented as a piece of art work.
It is interesting how the two mediums can both reflect the trends and styles of the day, but the decorative arts can disarm the offending and often intrusive isms of the art world, by portraying them as inoffensive patterns. Although the design world often borrows heavily from the art world, and has done so through most of the twentieth century, it does have a tendency to slowly accustomise the general public to the contemporary world around them.
The Art Deco movement was an incorporation of both the previous design style of Art Nouveau with its dependence on the floral and to some extent the geometric, and the leading art movements of the early twentieth century, particularly the abstract ideas of Cubism and the geometrical ideas of Constructivism which were digested and then reissued by the Bauhaus.
Andre Durenceau design work 1928
The two major influences on the Art Deco decorative style, that of Art Nouveau and Modernism, did not clash with each other, or even try to cancel each other out, but in fact they came together to create a seamless design style that was able to incorporate traditional floral work, abstraction and minimalism in the one overall style that became Art Deco.
It must be remembered that designers tend to section off the look or style of an art movement, without necessarily taking on the philosophy, purpose or meaning of that movement. Art Deco designers were able to incorporate the look of Modernism because it gave the decorative effect of being both painterly, but also contemporary. It worked particularly well with floral based design work as the florals were still recognisable, but were abstracted enough to appeal to the new world of the 1920s and 1930s that was being set out by designers, manufacturers and retailers.
Andre Durenceau design work 1928
Extreme geometrical abstraction worked very well for the design world and whether it was used for textiles, ceramics, carpetry or marquetry inlaid work, the public were willing to embrace the style within interiors and accessories, where they might have been more reluctant if it were represented as a piece of art work.
It is interesting how the two mediums can both reflect the trends and styles of the day, but the decorative arts can disarm the offending and often intrusive isms of the art world, by portraying them as inoffensive patterns. Although the design world often borrows heavily from the art world, and has done so through most of the twentieth century, it does have a tendency to slowly accustomise the general public to the contemporary world around them.
Bruce James Talbert Gothic Hall
Bruce James Talbert was considered by many of his contemporaries to be the leading designer and decorator of interiors of his period. His career spanned the 1860s right up to his death in 1881. Talbert was a broad designer and included furniture, textiles, metalwork, wallpaper, carpets and tapestry as well as planned interiors within his design career.
Bruce James Talbert Drawing Room 1868
The interior illustrations shown here from the late 1860s, show Talbert's typical solid rooms with an emphasis on his vertical and horizontal structuring, and although the rooms are set out in a Gothic revival style, they are less like the typical High Victorian Gothic that entailed many flourishes and structural decoration. By physically changing the interior dimensions and structure of a room, the imposition of successive decorative schemes could prove problematic. Talbert's rooms, on the other hand, could quite easily have been stripped of all their surface decoration, in order to be portrayed in another style entirely. Talbert's interiors maintained the solid vertical and horizontal lines as a standard on which fashionable, but often transient decorative styles could be overlaid.
This also applied to Talbert's furniture which largely took the vertical and horizontal planes as their inspiration and guide. This all meant that both furniture and decorative walls, floors and ceilings were easily matched and gave an overall feeling of solidity and space as they were all part of a subtle grid, while still remaining transitory enough to be moved and remade in another style.
Bruce James Talbert Gothic Hall 1868
A case in point is Talbert's later interest in Japonisme and the Anglo-Japanese interior decorative styles. His Japanese inspired interiors were roughly the same standard ones that had been part of his Gothic period, but with a oriental rather than medieval theme. Many have seen Talbert as a die-hard Goth that merely paid lip-service to other styles and decorative themes. However, to Talbert, the original Gothic influence gave him the idea and the strategy for a timeless, sturdy and geometrically clear space in which to build the decorative style upon. As long as he maintained an aspect of the vertical and horizontal structure that he had imposed on the interior, it would remain unchanged and serve as a clean but solid canvas on which to hang all future decorative displays. It was this crucially designed background that allowed Talbert to use different fashionable templates while retaining the integrity of the interior.
Had Talbert lived, he died in his early forties, he would have no doubt have maintained the interior structure, imposing more and more decorative styles as the century progressed and eclectic interiors became more varied and complicated. This implies that Talbert's interior decoration was very often skin deep and transient, but in fact it was his imposition of the vertical and horizontal grid like effect on to the rooms structure as well as its furniture and accessories, that always maintained the room as a constant and the decorative effects that much easier to impose, maintain and then discard.
Bruce James Talbert Drawing Room 1868
The interior illustrations shown here from the late 1860s, show Talbert's typical solid rooms with an emphasis on his vertical and horizontal structuring, and although the rooms are set out in a Gothic revival style, they are less like the typical High Victorian Gothic that entailed many flourishes and structural decoration. By physically changing the interior dimensions and structure of a room, the imposition of successive decorative schemes could prove problematic. Talbert's rooms, on the other hand, could quite easily have been stripped of all their surface decoration, in order to be portrayed in another style entirely. Talbert's interiors maintained the solid vertical and horizontal lines as a standard on which fashionable, but often transient decorative styles could be overlaid.
This also applied to Talbert's furniture which largely took the vertical and horizontal planes as their inspiration and guide. This all meant that both furniture and decorative walls, floors and ceilings were easily matched and gave an overall feeling of solidity and space as they were all part of a subtle grid, while still remaining transitory enough to be moved and remade in another style.
Bruce James Talbert Gothic Hall 1868
A case in point is Talbert's later interest in Japonisme and the Anglo-Japanese interior decorative styles. His Japanese inspired interiors were roughly the same standard ones that had been part of his Gothic period, but with a oriental rather than medieval theme. Many have seen Talbert as a die-hard Goth that merely paid lip-service to other styles and decorative themes. However, to Talbert, the original Gothic influence gave him the idea and the strategy for a timeless, sturdy and geometrically clear space in which to build the decorative style upon. As long as he maintained an aspect of the vertical and horizontal structure that he had imposed on the interior, it would remain unchanged and serve as a clean but solid canvas on which to hang all future decorative displays. It was this crucially designed background that allowed Talbert to use different fashionable templates while retaining the integrity of the interior.
Had Talbert lived, he died in his early forties, he would have no doubt have maintained the interior structure, imposing more and more decorative styles as the century progressed and eclectic interiors became more varied and complicated. This implies that Talbert's interior decoration was very often skin deep and transient, but in fact it was his imposition of the vertical and horizontal grid like effect on to the rooms structure as well as its furniture and accessories, that always maintained the room as a constant and the decorative effects that much easier to impose, maintain and then discard.
Frank Brangwyn and the Decorative Arts
Frank Brangwyn is probably better known as a fine artist, but throughout his career he was drawn towards the decorative arts, as well as his own fine art work. He produced design work in stained glass, furniture, glass, metal, ceramic, jewellery, tapestry and carpet, as well as designing interiors and exhibition spaces and producing a number of murals.
Brangwyn, unlike many fine artists, was fairly closely associated with a number of guilds and organizations dedicated to the decorative arts. He was in fact apprenticed to William Morris for four years and also knew Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and was familiar with the Century Guild that Mackmurdo had set up in 1882.
Brangwyn was in fact born in Bruges in Belguim, where his Father had settled to become a successful ecclesiastical architect and textile designer. When the family moved back to Britain, Brangwyn spent time at the South Kensington Art School.
The breadth of Brangwyn's interests and connections, is fairly staggering. He exhibited at the first Secession Exhibition in Vienna in 1898. He designed stained glass work for Louis Comfort Tiffany. He worked for William Morris and was also commissioned by Siegfried Bing for a number of projects. He also travelled widely throughout Europe, Turkey and North Africa and it was perhaps these trips that helped to expand Brangwyns art and design capabilities.
He produced a fairly wide range of carpets, tapestries and rugs throughout his career. In 1930 he designed the carpet shown here for the Glasgow based company James Templeton & Co. Interestingly the carpet steers clear of the then fashionable geometric and often abstract inspired work that tended to dominate much of the carpet industry in the 1920s and certainly the 1930s. Brangwyn seems to have taken an artistic approach to the design, despite the number of years that he spent on various design projects. The resulting carpet design has much more in common with a fine art painting or a mural than it does with a decorative piece of design work. Brangwyn was particularly interested in traditional Persian and Afghan carpet design and decorative ideas, and it is perhaps this interest that also fed into the carpet design work.
This particular carpet was part of the 1930 Pollard Exhibition in London. Brangwyn had been commissioned to design all of the interior furnishings and accessories including ceramics, glassware, lighting, textiles and carpets for a living room, dining room and two bedrooms. This would have been a fairly tall order for one designer, but Brangwyn seemed to take it all in his stride.
Brangwyn has left a considerable legacy of both fine art and decorative design work. In his career he was able to span a large variety of mediums and decorative styles from Arts & Crafts, through to Art Nouveau, Art Deco and beyond. The fact that he did most of this single-handedly is testament to his stamina, but perhaps says much more about his passion for the fine and decorative arts that was to last his whole career and lifetime.
Brangwyn, unlike many fine artists, was fairly closely associated with a number of guilds and organizations dedicated to the decorative arts. He was in fact apprenticed to William Morris for four years and also knew Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and was familiar with the Century Guild that Mackmurdo had set up in 1882.
Brangwyn was in fact born in Bruges in Belguim, where his Father had settled to become a successful ecclesiastical architect and textile designer. When the family moved back to Britain, Brangwyn spent time at the South Kensington Art School.
The breadth of Brangwyn's interests and connections, is fairly staggering. He exhibited at the first Secession Exhibition in Vienna in 1898. He designed stained glass work for Louis Comfort Tiffany. He worked for William Morris and was also commissioned by Siegfried Bing for a number of projects. He also travelled widely throughout Europe, Turkey and North Africa and it was perhaps these trips that helped to expand Brangwyns art and design capabilities.
He produced a fairly wide range of carpets, tapestries and rugs throughout his career. In 1930 he designed the carpet shown here for the Glasgow based company James Templeton & Co. Interestingly the carpet steers clear of the then fashionable geometric and often abstract inspired work that tended to dominate much of the carpet industry in the 1920s and certainly the 1930s. Brangwyn seems to have taken an artistic approach to the design, despite the number of years that he spent on various design projects. The resulting carpet design has much more in common with a fine art painting or a mural than it does with a decorative piece of design work. Brangwyn was particularly interested in traditional Persian and Afghan carpet design and decorative ideas, and it is perhaps this interest that also fed into the carpet design work.
This particular carpet was part of the 1930 Pollard Exhibition in London. Brangwyn had been commissioned to design all of the interior furnishings and accessories including ceramics, glassware, lighting, textiles and carpets for a living room, dining room and two bedrooms. This would have been a fairly tall order for one designer, but Brangwyn seemed to take it all in his stride.
Brangwyn has left a considerable legacy of both fine art and decorative design work. In his career he was able to span a large variety of mediums and decorative styles from Arts & Crafts, through to Art Nouveau, Art Deco and beyond. The fact that he did most of this single-handedly is testament to his stamina, but perhaps says much more about his passion for the fine and decorative arts that was to last his whole career and lifetime.
Lindsay Philip Butterfield, the British and Art Nouveau
Lindsay Philip Butterfield was one of the most successful British textile and wallpaper designers at the turn of the twentieth century. Today he is largely forgotten, although a number of contemporary critics saw him as carrying on the mantle of William Morris to a second generation of designer.
Butterfield sold his design work to most of the leading British textile and wallpaper companies of the time including: G P & J Baker, Turnbull & Stockdale, Warner, Thomas Wardle, Jeffrey & Co and Essex & Co.
His work was very much in the style and genre of William Morris, with much of his design work being floral based. However, it would be fair to say that Butterfield was more a follower of Morris as seen through the lens of Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, who Butterfield much admired.
There was a particular genre passing through much of the British textile and wallpaper design industry at the turn of the twentieth century, of which Butterfield and Voysey were an integral part. Although vaguely following, at least cosmetically, the European Art Nouveau style, many British designers were still producing work in the broadly homegrown Arts & Crafts style. In some respects this could be seen as a national style, with a particular emphasis on the flora and fauna that was natural to the British Isles.
Art Nouveau had a largely lukewarm reception in Britain, partly because many saw the genre as European in origin. Part of the reason that the Arts & Crafts movement had made such strides in Britain was the belief, true or otherwise, that the style was homegrown and had developed through following largely British customs and traditions. Many British designers, manufacturers, critics and writers had spent much of the nineteenth century trying to build up a truly British decorative style to compete with the French who dominated the design world of the nineteenth century, so it is little wonder that many in Britain were reluctant to throw away all that had been achieved in order to embrace the new fashions from France. However, much of the British public still saw France, with Paris in particular, as the centre of fashion and style and so British design tended to add what many saw as 'French gimmicks' to their own domestic work, in order to compete with and to placate the domestic market. By 1902, when Butterfield produced the wallpaper design shown above, there was a distinct, if somewhat understated attempt towards producing a form of British Art Nouveau, at least in styling, which tried to incorporate the new fashion within a largely Arts & Crafts framework.
Most designers saw the longevity of the British Arts & Crafts movement as proof of the success that the British had achieved by investing in the development of a native based design movement. Many saw the European Art Nouveau movement as purely fashion led, a style that had no roots and therefore a decorative movement that had no depth or longevity. However, Art Nouveau was to prove itself by outlasting its British critics and eventually transforming itself into the Art Deco style, while the British Arts & Crafts movement struggled to find a purpose and direction in the new century, and by the time that the Art Deco style appeared, the British movement was largely redundant or relegated to the edges of the British design world.
Butterfield sold his design work to most of the leading British textile and wallpaper companies of the time including: G P & J Baker, Turnbull & Stockdale, Warner, Thomas Wardle, Jeffrey & Co and Essex & Co.
His work was very much in the style and genre of William Morris, with much of his design work being floral based. However, it would be fair to say that Butterfield was more a follower of Morris as seen through the lens of Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, who Butterfield much admired.
There was a particular genre passing through much of the British textile and wallpaper design industry at the turn of the twentieth century, of which Butterfield and Voysey were an integral part. Although vaguely following, at least cosmetically, the European Art Nouveau style, many British designers were still producing work in the broadly homegrown Arts & Crafts style. In some respects this could be seen as a national style, with a particular emphasis on the flora and fauna that was natural to the British Isles.
Art Nouveau had a largely lukewarm reception in Britain, partly because many saw the genre as European in origin. Part of the reason that the Arts & Crafts movement had made such strides in Britain was the belief, true or otherwise, that the style was homegrown and had developed through following largely British customs and traditions. Many British designers, manufacturers, critics and writers had spent much of the nineteenth century trying to build up a truly British decorative style to compete with the French who dominated the design world of the nineteenth century, so it is little wonder that many in Britain were reluctant to throw away all that had been achieved in order to embrace the new fashions from France. However, much of the British public still saw France, with Paris in particular, as the centre of fashion and style and so British design tended to add what many saw as 'French gimmicks' to their own domestic work, in order to compete with and to placate the domestic market. By 1902, when Butterfield produced the wallpaper design shown above, there was a distinct, if somewhat understated attempt towards producing a form of British Art Nouveau, at least in styling, which tried to incorporate the new fashion within a largely Arts & Crafts framework.
Most designers saw the longevity of the British Arts & Crafts movement as proof of the success that the British had achieved by investing in the development of a native based design movement. Many saw the European Art Nouveau movement as purely fashion led, a style that had no roots and therefore a decorative movement that had no depth or longevity. However, Art Nouveau was to prove itself by outlasting its British critics and eventually transforming itself into the Art Deco style, while the British Arts & Crafts movement struggled to find a purpose and direction in the new century, and by the time that the Art Deco style appeared, the British movement was largely redundant or relegated to the edges of the British design world.
Richard Redgrave Well Spring porcelain vase
ichard Redgrave was a successful trained fine artist who, through his friendship with Henry Cole, found himself interested in and an important member of the design reform movement which was at the centre of Cole's reforming career.
Redgrave became a founding member of The Cole Group, an influential set of artists and designers who with Cole, believed that they would be able to influence the design strategy of Britain. Cole was able to recruit names like Owen Jones, William Dyce, Mathew Digby Wyatt and George Wallis amongst others. All had an interest in and a concern towards the state of British design as compared to other European nations, in particular France and Germany. It was felt by a number of critics that British manufacturing design and output had little or no direction and had an overall philosophy of quantity over quality. Cole, with tentative government support was given the aim of increasing the general standard of design in both industry and the design colleges that fed that industry.
An interesting early example of the groups reform ideas as far as design was concerned, can be seen in this early example shown above. The Well Spring vase was designed by Redgrave in 1847 and was originally intended to be produced in glass rather than porcelain.
It may not appear to us to be particularly design reform minded, but compared to much of the porcelain and glass design work that made up the bulk of the domestic and export markets of the 1840s and 1850s, this piece is very understated and subtle by comparison.
One of the main features of the vase is its criss-crossed reed pattern which was considered highly appropriate by the reformers, as the vase was to carry and contain liquid and therefore the reeds would be an instant identifier as to the purpose of the vessel.
Unfortunately the original design of the vase is lost in this 1865 porcelain version produced by Minton & Co. The overall look and feel of the vase in glass would have been light and airy with a partial illusion that the container was created from reeds, the differing coloured liquids used would have also added to that illusion.
How far this piece actually addresses any of the concerns of Cole's design reform movement, is debatable. It seems more of a gimmick or illusions toy, rather than a serious exercise in the reformation of nineteenth century design. However, it was perhaps a faltering step in the right direction and could be perceived as the beginning of the debate in the values that it was felt should be incorporated into domestic design and decoration. The reform movement was to gain pace and momentum as the century progressed, so that by the end of the nineteenth century it was considered commonplace to at least consider the function and form of domestic design, even if many manufacturers and retailers were still reluctant to take on all the reforms suggested by Cole and his group and the generations of designers and critics that followed.
Redgrave became a founding member of The Cole Group, an influential set of artists and designers who with Cole, believed that they would be able to influence the design strategy of Britain. Cole was able to recruit names like Owen Jones, William Dyce, Mathew Digby Wyatt and George Wallis amongst others. All had an interest in and a concern towards the state of British design as compared to other European nations, in particular France and Germany. It was felt by a number of critics that British manufacturing design and output had little or no direction and had an overall philosophy of quantity over quality. Cole, with tentative government support was given the aim of increasing the general standard of design in both industry and the design colleges that fed that industry.
An interesting early example of the groups reform ideas as far as design was concerned, can be seen in this early example shown above. The Well Spring vase was designed by Redgrave in 1847 and was originally intended to be produced in glass rather than porcelain.
It may not appear to us to be particularly design reform minded, but compared to much of the porcelain and glass design work that made up the bulk of the domestic and export markets of the 1840s and 1850s, this piece is very understated and subtle by comparison.
One of the main features of the vase is its criss-crossed reed pattern which was considered highly appropriate by the reformers, as the vase was to carry and contain liquid and therefore the reeds would be an instant identifier as to the purpose of the vessel.
Unfortunately the original design of the vase is lost in this 1865 porcelain version produced by Minton & Co. The overall look and feel of the vase in glass would have been light and airy with a partial illusion that the container was created from reeds, the differing coloured liquids used would have also added to that illusion.
How far this piece actually addresses any of the concerns of Cole's design reform movement, is debatable. It seems more of a gimmick or illusions toy, rather than a serious exercise in the reformation of nineteenth century design. However, it was perhaps a faltering step in the right direction and could be perceived as the beginning of the debate in the values that it was felt should be incorporated into domestic design and decoration. The reform movement was to gain pace and momentum as the century progressed, so that by the end of the nineteenth century it was considered commonplace to at least consider the function and form of domestic design, even if many manufacturers and retailers were still reluctant to take on all the reforms suggested by Cole and his group and the generations of designers and critics that followed.
Bernhard Pankok Walnut and spruce cupboard
Bernhard Pankok trained as an artist and illustrator in Dusseldorf and Berlin, but it was as a furniture designer that he produced some of his most interesting work.
It was while he was freelancing in the early 1890s as a graphic artist and illustrator in Munich, that he became interested in the English Arts & Crafts movement. This interest and influence was to play a part in Pankok's design work when he took up furniture making on a fairly large scale from 1897 onwards.
The cupboard shown above was produced by Pankok in 1899 for Hermann Obrist's country villa. It is an interesting combination of both the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau movements. It has elements of the conservative and reserved English style, while at the same time having other elements that place it with the much more flamboyant French Art Nouveau decorative style.
The Art Nouveau period saw much of this crossing over from the Arts & Crafts movement to the new Art Nouveau style and back again. It is sometimes confusing to see an artist or designer tagged with the name of both movements and while contemporary artists and designers were well aware of the new style, they would not necessarily see themselves as part of that movement, even though they might borrow or interpret some of that decorative style to use within their own work.
Pankok himself was a founding member of both the Vereinigte Werkstatten fur Kunst im Handwerk and the Deutsche Werkbund, both organizations that steered closer, despite some fundamental differences, to the philosophy of the English Arts & Crafts movement rather than the French Art Nouveau. However, designers from both organizations were often freely borrowing from the new French style and it's more geometric interpretation from Glasgow and Vienna, but often this was used only to give design work a contemporary feel.
Pankok was not a trained furniture designer, but as an artist and illustrator he brought an expansive element to furniture construction that allowed him to circumvent the conventions of furniture making, leading him to design pieces that were fluid, creative and original.
What the Art Nouveau movement did bring to the world of design was the encouragement in experimentation. Admittedly there were many mistakes and much of the experimentation was often ill advised, but it did create a fertile ground for expanding the parameters of both art and decoration. Perhaps more fundamentally important, was the encouragement the movement made in the crossing over of the traditional boundaries between the mutually exclusive and often antagonistic mediums of art and decoration. The turn of the twentieth century saw a rare moment when the two mutually exclusive worlds of art and decoration were allowed to creatively move relatively freely within each others mediums, and Pankoks furniture design work was one of the the many originally creative results of this freedom of movement.
It was while he was freelancing in the early 1890s as a graphic artist and illustrator in Munich, that he became interested in the English Arts & Crafts movement. This interest and influence was to play a part in Pankok's design work when he took up furniture making on a fairly large scale from 1897 onwards.
The cupboard shown above was produced by Pankok in 1899 for Hermann Obrist's country villa. It is an interesting combination of both the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau movements. It has elements of the conservative and reserved English style, while at the same time having other elements that place it with the much more flamboyant French Art Nouveau decorative style.
The Art Nouveau period saw much of this crossing over from the Arts & Crafts movement to the new Art Nouveau style and back again. It is sometimes confusing to see an artist or designer tagged with the name of both movements and while contemporary artists and designers were well aware of the new style, they would not necessarily see themselves as part of that movement, even though they might borrow or interpret some of that decorative style to use within their own work.
Pankok himself was a founding member of both the Vereinigte Werkstatten fur Kunst im Handwerk and the Deutsche Werkbund, both organizations that steered closer, despite some fundamental differences, to the philosophy of the English Arts & Crafts movement rather than the French Art Nouveau. However, designers from both organizations were often freely borrowing from the new French style and it's more geometric interpretation from Glasgow and Vienna, but often this was used only to give design work a contemporary feel.
Pankok was not a trained furniture designer, but as an artist and illustrator he brought an expansive element to furniture construction that allowed him to circumvent the conventions of furniture making, leading him to design pieces that were fluid, creative and original.
What the Art Nouveau movement did bring to the world of design was the encouragement in experimentation. Admittedly there were many mistakes and much of the experimentation was often ill advised, but it did create a fertile ground for expanding the parameters of both art and decoration. Perhaps more fundamentally important, was the encouragement the movement made in the crossing over of the traditional boundaries between the mutually exclusive and often antagonistic mediums of art and decoration. The turn of the twentieth century saw a rare moment when the two mutually exclusive worlds of art and decoration were allowed to creatively move relatively freely within each others mediums, and Pankoks furniture design work was one of the the many originally creative results of this freedom of movement.
Ynge Gamlin Tornrosa 1954
During the 1950s the Swedish textile company Nordiska Kompaniet, under the leadership of Astrid Sampe, took great strides in the process of opening up the world of textile design to the new ideas and influences of the post war culture that had spread rapidly since the end of the Second World war.
Sampe was particularly interested in injecting textile design and the larger interiors design market, with some of the aspects of the contemporary art movement of the 1950s, with particular emphasis on abstract expressionism.
Sampe commissioned a number of leading Swedish textile designers, as well as designers outside the field of textiles, fine artists, and even individuals with no history of design training at all, she even included a nuclear scientist.
In 1954 Sampe produced the ambitious Signed Textiles collection, with contributions from contemporary artists, architects and designers across Sweden. One of the designers she commissioned for the collection was Ynge Gamlin who produced the Tornrosa design shown here.
Gamlin's design piece is a good example of the direction in which Sampe was taking Swedish textile design in the 1950s. The design itself appears at first glance to be purely nature based with a dense overlapping sequence of coloured branches and foliage. However, the design could also be seen as a homage to the contemporary abstract expressionist movement, made famous by the likes of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. Sampe encouraged experimentation within the textile design discipline and was keen to see what abstraction would do the medium. However, she always believed that experimentation should be framed within a design discipline and used the phrase Order is Liberty to emphasise that fact.
Sampe was keen to bring together as many of the strands of contemporary creativity as she was able to, in order to produce an interior that would be worthy of the new world being entered by the population in the 1950s.
The work done by designers such as Gamlin and the organisational skills of Sampe, helped to push the boundaries of both textile design and the larger interior design world, so that the 1950s and 1960s were to see a whole raft of development ideas, much of it deriving from Scandinavia. Mediums such as furniture, ceramic, glass, metal, wallpaper and textile design were to see some of the most accomplished, innovative and experimental design work of the twentieth century.
Sampe was particularly interested in injecting textile design and the larger interiors design market, with some of the aspects of the contemporary art movement of the 1950s, with particular emphasis on abstract expressionism.
Sampe commissioned a number of leading Swedish textile designers, as well as designers outside the field of textiles, fine artists, and even individuals with no history of design training at all, she even included a nuclear scientist.
In 1954 Sampe produced the ambitious Signed Textiles collection, with contributions from contemporary artists, architects and designers across Sweden. One of the designers she commissioned for the collection was Ynge Gamlin who produced the Tornrosa design shown here.
Gamlin's design piece is a good example of the direction in which Sampe was taking Swedish textile design in the 1950s. The design itself appears at first glance to be purely nature based with a dense overlapping sequence of coloured branches and foliage. However, the design could also be seen as a homage to the contemporary abstract expressionist movement, made famous by the likes of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. Sampe encouraged experimentation within the textile design discipline and was keen to see what abstraction would do the medium. However, she always believed that experimentation should be framed within a design discipline and used the phrase Order is Liberty to emphasise that fact.
Sampe was keen to bring together as many of the strands of contemporary creativity as she was able to, in order to produce an interior that would be worthy of the new world being entered by the population in the 1950s.
The work done by designers such as Gamlin and the organisational skills of Sampe, helped to push the boundaries of both textile design and the larger interior design world, so that the 1950s and 1960s were to see a whole raft of development ideas, much of it deriving from Scandinavia. Mediums such as furniture, ceramic, glass, metal, wallpaper and textile design were to see some of the most accomplished, innovative and experimental design work of the twentieth century.
Edward Welby Pugin
Edward Welby Pugin was the eldest son of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. He followed his father into the profession of architecture and was indispensable within his Father's business, which he took over the running of at the tender age of eighteen, when his Father died in 1852.
Much of Edward's work, like his Father's, was ecclesiastical in nature and it is said that he completed over one hundred church building works throughout Britain, including three cathedrals, by the time of his death in 1875.
Although not nearly as well known as his father, Edward was the more successful, and whereas his Father worked in the early Victorian Gothic Revival style, by the time that his son was at the height of his creativity, the Gothic Revival had become more expansive and lavish, with less emphasis on being true to the Medieval roots of the style, placing instead more emphasis on the outward appearance of the decorative and ornamental qualities the style made possible.
Edward spent an exhausting and long drawn out litigation process trying to convince the nation that his Father was the true architect of the Palace of Westminster, rather than that of Charles Barry. It did little good as it had always been assumed, and still is, that Barry was the architect of the outside of the building while Pugin was the internal decorator. Edward undoubtedly felt that his Father had been marginalised by both Barry and the nation into the persona of an interior decorator rather than the more status driven one of architect, but in the long term the interior of Westminster has stood the test of time and probably made Pugin more accessible and popular than Barry has ever been.
Edward Pugin, like his Father before him, burnt himself out through overwork and stress and died at the early age of forty, the same age as his Father. Taken as a whole, Edward's career could be seen as a natural progression or even extension of that of his Father's. Both men were similar in temperament and ideals, both were devout Catholics and dedicated to the promotion of good ecclesiastical architectural design. Over a period of forty years Father and Son both extended and expanded the scope of ecclesiastical architecture across the British Isles.
For much more detailed information on the architectural achievements of both Father and Son a trip to the Pugin Society is well worth while.
Much of Edward's work, like his Father's, was ecclesiastical in nature and it is said that he completed over one hundred church building works throughout Britain, including three cathedrals, by the time of his death in 1875.
Although not nearly as well known as his father, Edward was the more successful, and whereas his Father worked in the early Victorian Gothic Revival style, by the time that his son was at the height of his creativity, the Gothic Revival had become more expansive and lavish, with less emphasis on being true to the Medieval roots of the style, placing instead more emphasis on the outward appearance of the decorative and ornamental qualities the style made possible.
Edward spent an exhausting and long drawn out litigation process trying to convince the nation that his Father was the true architect of the Palace of Westminster, rather than that of Charles Barry. It did little good as it had always been assumed, and still is, that Barry was the architect of the outside of the building while Pugin was the internal decorator. Edward undoubtedly felt that his Father had been marginalised by both Barry and the nation into the persona of an interior decorator rather than the more status driven one of architect, but in the long term the interior of Westminster has stood the test of time and probably made Pugin more accessible and popular than Barry has ever been.
Edward Pugin, like his Father before him, burnt himself out through overwork and stress and died at the early age of forty, the same age as his Father. Taken as a whole, Edward's career could be seen as a natural progression or even extension of that of his Father's. Both men were similar in temperament and ideals, both were devout Catholics and dedicated to the promotion of good ecclesiastical architectural design. Over a period of forty years Father and Son both extended and expanded the scope of ecclesiastical architecture across the British Isles.
For much more detailed information on the architectural achievements of both Father and Son a trip to the Pugin Society is well worth while.
Gustav Stickley Craftsman Bungalow
n the May 1903 issue of Gustav Stickley's The Craftsman magazine, the plans and perspective views of the first Craftsman house were published. This was to become a regular feature during the life of the magazine and became an important facet of the whole Craftsman experience.
It was Stickleys idea to integrate all aspects of domestic life, from the external architecture and planned gardens, to the internal furnishings and accessories. All would be as a unified and harmonious whole. This all encompassing lifestyle would be reflected in his monthly magazine, which in turn was to be a reflection of both his own philosophy and that of his company.
All aspects of domestic living were to be seen as facets of a work of art. The placing of the building within its environment was crucial and much of the internal design of the house could depend on its exterior positioning, and although it was not expected that every home would be able to chose its vistas and panoramic views, it was expected that as far as possible, attention should be placed on the building and its immediate environment.
Many of Stickley's more desirable house plans called for homes to be nestled within a naturally rural or semi-rural setting, although there were many plans published in the magazine for both suburban and urban dwellings. The fact that the idea of 'natural' was sometimes more artificially achieved than was comfortable for the average Arts & Crafts sensibility, was more a matter of practicality than desire. More importance was placed on the artistic sensibility of the buildings harmony with its immediate and more distant environment, rather than a literal placing within a truly natural and often harsh environment. That this environment sometimes needed to be softened with a semi-landscaped exterior, was considered acceptable.
It would be harsh to call a Craftsman house an aesthetic exercise and nothing more. These houses were meant to be more than just picturesque summer homes. Stickley took the idea that was central to the philosophy of the English Arts & Crafts movement, that of harmony with nature, and applied it to the great American outdoors. The Craftsman house had much more room literally, to reach its full potential as a home, both derived from and existing in its own natural environment. Something that the English Arts & Crafts movement, within their crowded island, had largely only been able to imagine as a theoretical possibility.
The monthly Craftsman house plans became a popular regular feature of The Craftsman, and although not many were commissioned to be built, the idea of living within a harmonious relationship with nature became an important aspect in the education of both the readers of the magazine and the general American experience.
It was Stickleys idea to integrate all aspects of domestic life, from the external architecture and planned gardens, to the internal furnishings and accessories. All would be as a unified and harmonious whole. This all encompassing lifestyle would be reflected in his monthly magazine, which in turn was to be a reflection of both his own philosophy and that of his company.
All aspects of domestic living were to be seen as facets of a work of art. The placing of the building within its environment was crucial and much of the internal design of the house could depend on its exterior positioning, and although it was not expected that every home would be able to chose its vistas and panoramic views, it was expected that as far as possible, attention should be placed on the building and its immediate environment.
Many of Stickley's more desirable house plans called for homes to be nestled within a naturally rural or semi-rural setting, although there were many plans published in the magazine for both suburban and urban dwellings. The fact that the idea of 'natural' was sometimes more artificially achieved than was comfortable for the average Arts & Crafts sensibility, was more a matter of practicality than desire. More importance was placed on the artistic sensibility of the buildings harmony with its immediate and more distant environment, rather than a literal placing within a truly natural and often harsh environment. That this environment sometimes needed to be softened with a semi-landscaped exterior, was considered acceptable.
It would be harsh to call a Craftsman house an aesthetic exercise and nothing more. These houses were meant to be more than just picturesque summer homes. Stickley took the idea that was central to the philosophy of the English Arts & Crafts movement, that of harmony with nature, and applied it to the great American outdoors. The Craftsman house had much more room literally, to reach its full potential as a home, both derived from and existing in its own natural environment. Something that the English Arts & Crafts movement, within their crowded island, had largely only been able to imagine as a theoretical possibility.
The monthly Craftsman house plans became a popular regular feature of The Craftsman, and although not many were commissioned to be built, the idea of living within a harmonious relationship with nature became an important aspect in the education of both the readers of the magazine and the general American experience.
Gustav Stickley Wrought iron & copper chandelier
In 1902 Gustav Stickley added a metal workshop to complement the already established Craftsman Workshops. In-house metalworking was principally set up by Stickley as a means of supplying metalwork fittings for his furniture production, as in hinges, handles, inlays etc. However, there was also intense and ongoing competition with other rival companies who were also supplying broadly Arts & Crafts based interior furnishings and accessories. It was in Stickley's interest to expand the broad base of his company as much as he was able.
Most of the work produced was iron and copper based and production ranged from vases to fireplace furniture, candlesticks, chargers and lighting. Much of the design work itself was fairly straightforward, practical and honest to materials, as would be expected from a man whose commercial and private philosophy tried to run close to the idealism of John Ruskin, who was an early influence on Stickley and one of the guides to his own interpretation of the Arts & Crafts movement.
The output of the metal workshop was limited, especially when compared to that of the company's furniture production. Much of it was also fairly heavy, both in appearance and construction, and seemed somewhat lacking in attention to both style and finish. Compared with their main rivals in metalwork production, such as Roycroft and the Onondago Metal Shops, Stickley was hard pressed to compete. However, the Craftsman Workshops never saw metalwork production as the main theme of the company, and it remained largely as a supply industry for furniture production.
The pieces that were produced, such as the wrought iron and copper chandelier shown above, were often featured in Stickley's monthly The Craftsman magazine which was used, to a certain extent at least, as a vehicle for the company and it's products. When design work like the chandelier were shown within settings that were considered appropriate for the style, the more rudimentary finish and appearance does not seem to hamper the metalwork, and when seen in this context the piece seems perfectly suited to and complementary to the simple, honest and well constructed furniture that was the trademark of Stickley and his Craftsman Workshops. All were produced in order to create an overall ambiance that is a Craftsman interior.
Most of the work produced was iron and copper based and production ranged from vases to fireplace furniture, candlesticks, chargers and lighting. Much of the design work itself was fairly straightforward, practical and honest to materials, as would be expected from a man whose commercial and private philosophy tried to run close to the idealism of John Ruskin, who was an early influence on Stickley and one of the guides to his own interpretation of the Arts & Crafts movement.
The output of the metal workshop was limited, especially when compared to that of the company's furniture production. Much of it was also fairly heavy, both in appearance and construction, and seemed somewhat lacking in attention to both style and finish. Compared with their main rivals in metalwork production, such as Roycroft and the Onondago Metal Shops, Stickley was hard pressed to compete. However, the Craftsman Workshops never saw metalwork production as the main theme of the company, and it remained largely as a supply industry for furniture production.
The pieces that were produced, such as the wrought iron and copper chandelier shown above, were often featured in Stickley's monthly The Craftsman magazine which was used, to a certain extent at least, as a vehicle for the company and it's products. When design work like the chandelier were shown within settings that were considered appropriate for the style, the more rudimentary finish and appearance does not seem to hamper the metalwork, and when seen in this context the piece seems perfectly suited to and complementary to the simple, honest and well constructed furniture that was the trademark of Stickley and his Craftsman Workshops. All were produced in order to create an overall ambiance that is a Craftsman interior.
Margaret Macdonald Summer stained DESIGN
Margaret Macdonald's sketch for a potential stained glass window composition, is a perfect example of her individual approach to art and design.
The piece was designed in 1894 and was called Summer. Although the window was never commissioned, and therefore never became a reality, it is an example of Macdonald's early maturity as a uniquely individual artist and designer and shows quite clearly that she had a fully formed style long before she came under the umbrella of the 'Mackintosh look' of her husband to be, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Macdonald created the design at the Glasgow School of Art for a local design competition. The piece won her the competition, which says much about her ability as a student, but also tells us much more about the standard that Francis Newbery had managed to achieve for the School since becoming its head in 1885. It was the high level of art and design training that Newbery had managed to both achieve and sustain, that made students with obvious individual talents such as Macdonald, flourish in the creative atmosphere of the Glasgow School of Art. A feat that many other colleges and schools throughout Britain were envious to emulate.
In this stained glass design, Macdonald does not use harsh or glaring colour tones and for a composition entitled Summer there is a remarkable predominance of greens and blues, rather than say reds and oranges. However, the use of colour tones become obvious when the composition is explained. The design incorporates the joining of earth and sky, organic life and sunlight, with the earth being represented as a woman in partial plant form and the sky by that of a glowing man. They are both rapt in a passionate embrace and kiss. It is an obvious Symbolist influenced piece of work, though within the natural style of Macdonald.
Although the style of this design piece does incorporate some of the long willowy, somewhat melancholy features that we now associate with the early style of Margaret and her sister Frances, it is also apparent that this particular design is much more sophisticated and commercial than previous work, and although it was never placed within a domestic setting, it could easily have stood comparison with the best of contemporary stained glass work of the end of the nineteenth, and more importantly the beginning of the twentieth century.
Posted by John hopper at 16:12
Labels: 1890s, art nouveau, arts and crafts, charles rennie mackintosh, francis newbery, glasgow, margaret macdonald, stained glass
6 comments:
Hels said...
I am reluctant to write this because Macdonald's design if very beautifully drafted back in 1894. But does the skeletal nature of the arms and hands not remind you, much later, of German expressionism?
One example will do. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterised Egon Schiele's paintings and drawings were typical.
The piece was designed in 1894 and was called Summer. Although the window was never commissioned, and therefore never became a reality, it is an example of Macdonald's early maturity as a uniquely individual artist and designer and shows quite clearly that she had a fully formed style long before she came under the umbrella of the 'Mackintosh look' of her husband to be, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Macdonald created the design at the Glasgow School of Art for a local design competition. The piece won her the competition, which says much about her ability as a student, but also tells us much more about the standard that Francis Newbery had managed to achieve for the School since becoming its head in 1885. It was the high level of art and design training that Newbery had managed to both achieve and sustain, that made students with obvious individual talents such as Macdonald, flourish in the creative atmosphere of the Glasgow School of Art. A feat that many other colleges and schools throughout Britain were envious to emulate.
In this stained glass design, Macdonald does not use harsh or glaring colour tones and for a composition entitled Summer there is a remarkable predominance of greens and blues, rather than say reds and oranges. However, the use of colour tones become obvious when the composition is explained. The design incorporates the joining of earth and sky, organic life and sunlight, with the earth being represented as a woman in partial plant form and the sky by that of a glowing man. They are both rapt in a passionate embrace and kiss. It is an obvious Symbolist influenced piece of work, though within the natural style of Macdonald.
Although the style of this design piece does incorporate some of the long willowy, somewhat melancholy features that we now associate with the early style of Margaret and her sister Frances, it is also apparent that this particular design is much more sophisticated and commercial than previous work, and although it was never placed within a domestic setting, it could easily have stood comparison with the best of contemporary stained glass work of the end of the nineteenth, and more importantly the beginning of the twentieth century.
Posted by John hopper at 16:12
Labels: 1890s, art nouveau, arts and crafts, charles rennie mackintosh, francis newbery, glasgow, margaret macdonald, stained glass
6 comments:
Hels said...
I am reluctant to write this because Macdonald's design if very beautifully drafted back in 1894. But does the skeletal nature of the arms and hands not remind you, much later, of German expressionism?
One example will do. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterised Egon Schiele's paintings and drawings were typical.
Frank Lloyd Wright copper urn 1898
This copper urn was a favourite of Frank Lloyd Wrights. He designed the first one in 1898, but produced only a few examples between that date and 1909. They were created originally to sit within some of Wrights early and specifically designed interiors such as the Dana house, the Coonley house, the Edward C Walter house, Browne's Bookstore and even Wrights own home.
Wright commissioned James A Miller, a Chicago sheet metal worker, to construct the urns, and although a number of them had small variations, they basically followed a set design by Wright, with the circle within a square format being an important element of the design.
This particular piece has a warm patinated look and feel to it, and would have sat quite comfortable within Wrights largely naturally inspired interiors, which were often dominated by wood, stone and metal.
The urn did function as a semi-practical interior accessory, as it was meant to hold prairie grass or some other form of natural and specifically native plant. This was part of Wrights ideas about the inside and outside of a dwelling being both interchangeable, or at least able to be interactive with each other. His philosophy shares the same basic principles as that of the American Arts & Crafts movement, and Wright can fairly be said to be strongly associated with both the movement and its ideals, despite the fact that he did produce work that was very much part of his own individual style.
The urn is a prime example of the standard achieved by metalwork professionals and sometimes amateurs, at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Copper work in particular has probably never been bettered and it is interesting to see how many architects and interior designers felt the need to include copper specifically within an interior. However, on a broader scale, brass and wrought iron work were also popularly included within turn of the century interiors and were often very much considered to be an integral part of the building itself, rather than just as an accessory.
Likewise, Wrights copper urn should not be seen as an interesting and individual metalwork accessory, but as an integral part of a specifically designed building. The urn was deeply associated with that building and lost much of its purpose and function when it was removed from its natural landscape and setting.
Wright commissioned James A Miller, a Chicago sheet metal worker, to construct the urns, and although a number of them had small variations, they basically followed a set design by Wright, with the circle within a square format being an important element of the design.
This particular piece has a warm patinated look and feel to it, and would have sat quite comfortable within Wrights largely naturally inspired interiors, which were often dominated by wood, stone and metal.
The urn did function as a semi-practical interior accessory, as it was meant to hold prairie grass or some other form of natural and specifically native plant. This was part of Wrights ideas about the inside and outside of a dwelling being both interchangeable, or at least able to be interactive with each other. His philosophy shares the same basic principles as that of the American Arts & Crafts movement, and Wright can fairly be said to be strongly associated with both the movement and its ideals, despite the fact that he did produce work that was very much part of his own individual style.
The urn is a prime example of the standard achieved by metalwork professionals and sometimes amateurs, at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Copper work in particular has probably never been bettered and it is interesting to see how many architects and interior designers felt the need to include copper specifically within an interior. However, on a broader scale, brass and wrought iron work were also popularly included within turn of the century interiors and were often very much considered to be an integral part of the building itself, rather than just as an accessory.
Likewise, Wrights copper urn should not be seen as an interesting and individual metalwork accessory, but as an integral part of a specifically designed building. The urn was deeply associated with that building and lost much of its purpose and function when it was removed from its natural landscape and setting.
Art Nouveau and Electric Lighting
There was an often bizarre assembly of electric lighting when, after initial experimentation and testing, the idea of the use of electricity to light domestic homes was first introduced.
In many cases electric lighting was seen firstly as a novelty, and at best a support for the prime lighting techniques of gas or oil. Bulbs were often of such a low wattage and had such a short life span that they couldn't hope to compete with other forms of lighting that had a much longer history of dependability. Also, electricity supplies were often intermittent and were fraught with a number of teething problems that many of the new companies supplying the technology, were ill prepared to deal with.
The early electric lamps shown here by Galle, Tiffany and Majorelle were all produced within a couple of years of the start of the new twentieth century. However, due to a lack of understanding of the new technology and a need to display electricity as a novelty rather than as a necessity, the function of the lamp has been submerged, thus producing a piece of equipment that has little practical use and is more closely affiliated with a piece of sculpture than with any form of practical lighting.
Louis Comfort Tiffany Pond Lily lamp 1900
A good example of the confusion and lack of understanding of the function of electricity in the home, was the impractical application of lamp shades. Rather than being clear, or at least lightly coloured, many were often made from opaque glass that was so heavily coloured or patterned, that there was little if any artificial light available for an interior, from an already feeble electric bulb.
This implies that the technology had arrived before the designer was fully aware of the constraints and foibles of that new technology. Admittedly electric lighting was very often packaged and presented to the public as an amusement. Many of the carnivals and funfairs of the period had venues that were lit by electricity. The technology may very well have been portrayed as the wonder of the age, but to many it was still very much a case of Yes, but what do we do with it?
As the century progressed and electricity became much more of a casual and everyday technology, manufacturers soon learnt to deal with the new opportunities and admittedly also the constraints of electricity, and much more practical applications, particularly in the form of lighting, were available for domestic use. However, the early Art Nouveau attempts to deal with the coming modern world are an interesting example of a the confusion that can be caused by a technology with no previous history and therefore no standards or guidelines. Misunderstandings between designers and the real applications of a future technology have been a fact of life of the twentieth century, as they will be of the twenty first.
In many cases electric lighting was seen firstly as a novelty, and at best a support for the prime lighting techniques of gas or oil. Bulbs were often of such a low wattage and had such a short life span that they couldn't hope to compete with other forms of lighting that had a much longer history of dependability. Also, electricity supplies were often intermittent and were fraught with a number of teething problems that many of the new companies supplying the technology, were ill prepared to deal with.
The early electric lamps shown here by Galle, Tiffany and Majorelle were all produced within a couple of years of the start of the new twentieth century. However, due to a lack of understanding of the new technology and a need to display electricity as a novelty rather than as a necessity, the function of the lamp has been submerged, thus producing a piece of equipment that has little practical use and is more closely affiliated with a piece of sculpture than with any form of practical lighting.
Louis Comfort Tiffany Pond Lily lamp 1900
A good example of the confusion and lack of understanding of the function of electricity in the home, was the impractical application of lamp shades. Rather than being clear, or at least lightly coloured, many were often made from opaque glass that was so heavily coloured or patterned, that there was little if any artificial light available for an interior, from an already feeble electric bulb.
This implies that the technology had arrived before the designer was fully aware of the constraints and foibles of that new technology. Admittedly electric lighting was very often packaged and presented to the public as an amusement. Many of the carnivals and funfairs of the period had venues that were lit by electricity. The technology may very well have been portrayed as the wonder of the age, but to many it was still very much a case of Yes, but what do we do with it?
As the century progressed and electricity became much more of a casual and everyday technology, manufacturers soon learnt to deal with the new opportunities and admittedly also the constraints of electricity, and much more practical applications, particularly in the form of lighting, were available for domestic use. However, the early Art Nouveau attempts to deal with the coming modern world are an interesting example of a the confusion that can be caused by a technology with no previous history and therefore no standards or guidelines. Misunderstandings between designers and the real applications of a future technology have been a fact of life of the twentieth century, as they will be of the twenty first.
Mona Morales-Schildt and the Ventana Glass Range
Mona Morales-Schildt was initially trained at the Stockholm College of Art, Craft and Design. In 1935 she joined the Gustavsberg company as an assistant to the designer Wilhelm Kage. In 1938 she moved to the Finnish ceramics company Arabia, where she stayed until the start of the Second World War.
In 1958 she joined the Kosta company where her most popular work was produced. When she joined the company she was one of only two female designers, the other being Tyra Lundgren.
Her work for Kosta proved very successful and she produced a number of different styles and ranges during her stay with the company which ended in 1971 when she left. However, it was with her Ventana range of glassware, two examples of which are shown here, that was to give her a lasting legacy as one of the major Swedish, and therefore Scandinavian, glass designers of the second half of the twentieth century.
Ventana, which translates as window in Italian was a system of enclosing colour within heavy set glass. It was said to be inspired by the glass artist Paolo Venini when Morales-Schildt worked at the Venini company before she started at Kosta. The Ventana range was first produced in 1959 and was popular throughout the 1960s in a number of different guises.
The pieces are elegant and sophisticated, but altogether restrained and self-contained, very much in the tradition of twentieth century Scandinavian glass design. The effect that Morales-Schildt affected with her Ventana range, is something that was to become widely copied and imitated throughout the 1970s and 1980s. That Morales-Schildt was able to preempt the interest in sophisticated and restrained glass design work, which often bordered on glass sculpture rather than functional glass work, shows us that she was indeed as sophisticated and elegant as her widely praised design work.
In 1958 she joined the Kosta company where her most popular work was produced. When she joined the company she was one of only two female designers, the other being Tyra Lundgren.
Her work for Kosta proved very successful and she produced a number of different styles and ranges during her stay with the company which ended in 1971 when she left. However, it was with her Ventana range of glassware, two examples of which are shown here, that was to give her a lasting legacy as one of the major Swedish, and therefore Scandinavian, glass designers of the second half of the twentieth century.
Ventana, which translates as window in Italian was a system of enclosing colour within heavy set glass. It was said to be inspired by the glass artist Paolo Venini when Morales-Schildt worked at the Venini company before she started at Kosta. The Ventana range was first produced in 1959 and was popular throughout the 1960s in a number of different guises.
The pieces are elegant and sophisticated, but altogether restrained and self-contained, very much in the tradition of twentieth century Scandinavian glass design. The effect that Morales-Schildt affected with her Ventana range, is something that was to become widely copied and imitated throughout the 1970s and 1980s. That Morales-Schildt was able to preempt the interest in sophisticated and restrained glass design work, which often bordered on glass sculpture rather than functional glass work, shows us that she was indeed as sophisticated and elegant as her widely praised design work.
Josep Maria Jujol Torre de la Creu
The Torre de la Creu, just outside Barcelona, was designed in 1913 by Josep Maria Jujol a former assistant of the Barcelona based architect Antoni Gaudi.
The building actually consists of two separate properties within the same structure. What is probably unique about the building is the way that it has taken the idea of the circle as its starting point, rather than the more traditional square or rectangle. The building is constructed using six intersecting circles as a floor plan. These circles then become the base of six cylinders which make up the bulk of the building. By varying the height of these cylinders, an uneven and asymmetrical roof line was easily and effectively achieved. The building was then split down the middle with a dividing wall to create the two properties.
The building is unique and even if the plans were repeated, no two buildings would be the same. There is an element of art in this form of structure that lends little to the idea of mass-produced housing or of the domestic setting being more like a machine than a dwelling. Jujol's organic housing, although based loosely within the Art Nouveau movement, has many similarities to the idea of the Art House, a domestic building that is created as a whole, both inside and out, as an individual construction that does not have to necessarily relate to any other building in its vicinity.
Jujol was part of the architectural school of Barcelona, led by Gaudi. While popular within the city and Catalonia generally, this sometimes extreme and certainly individual approach to architectural design did not travel well outside its core area, as many who were not familiar with with the style and particularly the history of Catalonia were often confused, so that the borrowing of specifically Spanish based Islamic and medieval decoration and architectural formulas meant little to outsiders. Consequently the style that became so closely associated with Gaudi and his small group of followers, is often considered to be insular and remote from the mainstream and international architectural movement of the twentieth century.
However, as regards the idea of organic and fluid building techniques and ideas towards the creative use of space within often dull domestic parameters, the Torre de la Creu building makes a contribution towards our understanding of what exactly it is to live in a home that is both individual and inspiring.
The building actually consists of two separate properties within the same structure. What is probably unique about the building is the way that it has taken the idea of the circle as its starting point, rather than the more traditional square or rectangle. The building is constructed using six intersecting circles as a floor plan. These circles then become the base of six cylinders which make up the bulk of the building. By varying the height of these cylinders, an uneven and asymmetrical roof line was easily and effectively achieved. The building was then split down the middle with a dividing wall to create the two properties.
The building is unique and even if the plans were repeated, no two buildings would be the same. There is an element of art in this form of structure that lends little to the idea of mass-produced housing or of the domestic setting being more like a machine than a dwelling. Jujol's organic housing, although based loosely within the Art Nouveau movement, has many similarities to the idea of the Art House, a domestic building that is created as a whole, both inside and out, as an individual construction that does not have to necessarily relate to any other building in its vicinity.
Jujol was part of the architectural school of Barcelona, led by Gaudi. While popular within the city and Catalonia generally, this sometimes extreme and certainly individual approach to architectural design did not travel well outside its core area, as many who were not familiar with with the style and particularly the history of Catalonia were often confused, so that the borrowing of specifically Spanish based Islamic and medieval decoration and architectural formulas meant little to outsiders. Consequently the style that became so closely associated with Gaudi and his small group of followers, is often considered to be insular and remote from the mainstream and international architectural movement of the twentieth century.
However, as regards the idea of organic and fluid building techniques and ideas towards the creative use of space within often dull domestic parameters, the Torre de la Creu building makes a contribution towards our understanding of what exactly it is to live in a home that is both individual and inspiring.
the Stobo Company
This design by Al Eklund, produced for the Swedish company Stobo in 1958, is called Fagelbur. The design is made up of a vast number of seemingly random crossed and overlapping lines. This rough lattice pattern could well be a representation of the weaving technique used to produce fabric, and with the design being reproduced on a coarse and fairly rough woven linen, it is as if the pattern is copying, or even reinterpreting the base fabric. However, when the Swedish name of the textile is translated into English as Birdcage, the design takes on a different connotation as it could then be interpreted as the latticed bars of a birdcage, or perhaps it could be seen that the oval motifs are the birdcages, with the rest of the pattern taking inspiration from these motifs. In other words the design is open for interpretation and reinterpretation.
Eklund produced a number of textile designs for Stobo during the 1950s that were very similar in style to Fagelbur. Many took on the same monotone and dense appearance, so that they tended to appear as brooding abstract canvasses, rather than as interior furnishing fabrics.
Eklund was in fact a graphic designer, who was commissioned by Gota Tragardh, the then artistic director of Stobo, to produce a range of contemporary and hopefully uncompromising textile design work for the company. Along with a number of other carefully chosen leading Swedish artists and designers from a variety of disciplines, Tragardh hoped to make a name for the company nationally and more importantly internationally, by pushing Stobo into the cutting edge of 1950s textile design. To achieve this she encouraged her commissioned artists and designers to approach the textile medium with a fresh and uncluttered outlook and with a minimum of preconceptions of what a textile design should be.
She largely succeeded, as the work produced during this period for Stobo was some of the most innovative and uncompromising textile design work on offer anywhere in the world. The fact that Stobo itself did not survive the 1960s is a shame, but sometimes a company or a set of designers can be a little too ahead of their time and can only be appreciated with a little hindsight.
Fifty years on, which is more than enough time for hindsight to kick in, the textile design work commissioned by Tragardh, like Eklund's and the general output of Stobo, must be seen as some of the most inspirational and innovative work achieved during the 1950s. A decade which in itself was a period that was no stranger to inspirational and innovative design work from any number of disciplines.
Eklund produced a number of textile designs for Stobo during the 1950s that were very similar in style to Fagelbur. Many took on the same monotone and dense appearance, so that they tended to appear as brooding abstract canvasses, rather than as interior furnishing fabrics.
Eklund was in fact a graphic designer, who was commissioned by Gota Tragardh, the then artistic director of Stobo, to produce a range of contemporary and hopefully uncompromising textile design work for the company. Along with a number of other carefully chosen leading Swedish artists and designers from a variety of disciplines, Tragardh hoped to make a name for the company nationally and more importantly internationally, by pushing Stobo into the cutting edge of 1950s textile design. To achieve this she encouraged her commissioned artists and designers to approach the textile medium with a fresh and uncluttered outlook and with a minimum of preconceptions of what a textile design should be.
She largely succeeded, as the work produced during this period for Stobo was some of the most innovative and uncompromising textile design work on offer anywhere in the world. The fact that Stobo itself did not survive the 1960s is a shame, but sometimes a company or a set of designers can be a little too ahead of their time and can only be appreciated with a little hindsight.
Fifty years on, which is more than enough time for hindsight to kick in, the textile design work commissioned by Tragardh, like Eklund's and the general output of Stobo, must be seen as some of the most inspirational and innovative work achieved during the 1950s. A decade which in itself was a period that was no stranger to inspirational and innovative design work from any number of disciplines.
CERAMIC TILES
Minton Hollins & Co 1870
While a repeat pattern is an easy enough option to reproduce within a ceramic tile scenario, it was not necessarily extensively used over a long period, and if so, was often relegated to less prestigious areas of a domestic home, like a kitchen or hall for example. However, it was used effectively within large commercial and public buildings to cover vast areas of wall and floor with complex pattern work that has often outlasted the initial use of the building and outlived its occupiers.
Minton & Co 1871
The tiles shown here were all produced in the 1870s and are typical examples of repeat pattern that was intended for either large or small scale coverage of a wall or floor. Often the tile was non-directional which meant that any straight edge of a tile could be placed next to another without having to allow for the direction or progression of the pattern. However, some tiles were directional though still part of a repeat pattern, as can be seen in the William Morris Daisy design, these had to be placed in a certain direction for the repeat pattern to work.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co Daisy 1870s
Also included is a border ceramic tile which was repeatable only on two sides rather than the four. The tiles were usually designed with thick borders on the two unrepeatable sides so as not to allow the repeat to follow both vertically and horizontally, thus creating a thin line. These border tiles tended to form the same function as a border wallpaper and very often lined, contained or seperated extensive repeat pattern areas and on the whole, when applied to a wall, tended to be set horizontally, rather than vertically.
The repeat tile very often followed a strict geometric pattern, usually because of its simplicity and ease with which to create a large scale covering that was still interesting as a large pattern and did not become bland, unattractive and indistinctive the larger it got. Medieval inspired Gothic patterns proved to be particularly popular for this very reason.
The Campbell Tile Co 1875
As the century progressed, repeat pattern ceramic tiles, while not disappearing entirely, did diminish in popularity at least in the domestic market. This was largely due to a combination in the rise of fashionable wallpapers and painted walls, and also the replacement of generally company designed tiles with that of the individual ceramic tile, very often with a reproduction of a piece of artwork. These individual 'art tiles' were sometimes framed, and more often placed within an area of plain tiles, or set as a small series around a fireplace or even placed into furniture, they very often had literary themes, such as scenes from Shakespeare or Tennyson.
By commissioning or at least buying the rights of a particular artist or artwork, a company could then attach a popular and fashionable artists name to the tile, thus securing its sale. Ceramic tiles were hugely popular within the nineteenth century and it has been said that Britain produced more tiles within the Victorian era than all other eras put together. Most were industrially produced, often on a massive scale, though some were hand produced and these tend to be thicker and more substantial than the mass produced ones.
Morris, Marshall, Falukner & Co Daisy 1870s
Posted by John hopper at 17:13
Labels: 1870s, artist, ceramics, design, designer, pattern, tile, victorian
3 comments:
Blue said...
The Foreign office has brilliant floors of patterned and inlaid tile, I think. Palace of Westminster, too.
31 July 2009 02:06
John hopper said...
Yes they do. Also, most Victorian city and town halls up and down the country have some form of repeat tile work, as do many public libraries, colleges etc.
31 July 2009 10:20
Margo said...
I'm glad tile is making a comeback in domestic design. It makes such a wonderful focal point in a room when designed and placed skillfully.
31 July 2009 19:23
While a repeat pattern is an easy enough option to reproduce within a ceramic tile scenario, it was not necessarily extensively used over a long period, and if so, was often relegated to less prestigious areas of a domestic home, like a kitchen or hall for example. However, it was used effectively within large commercial and public buildings to cover vast areas of wall and floor with complex pattern work that has often outlasted the initial use of the building and outlived its occupiers.
Minton & Co 1871
The tiles shown here were all produced in the 1870s and are typical examples of repeat pattern that was intended for either large or small scale coverage of a wall or floor. Often the tile was non-directional which meant that any straight edge of a tile could be placed next to another without having to allow for the direction or progression of the pattern. However, some tiles were directional though still part of a repeat pattern, as can be seen in the William Morris Daisy design, these had to be placed in a certain direction for the repeat pattern to work.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co Daisy 1870s
Also included is a border ceramic tile which was repeatable only on two sides rather than the four. The tiles were usually designed with thick borders on the two unrepeatable sides so as not to allow the repeat to follow both vertically and horizontally, thus creating a thin line. These border tiles tended to form the same function as a border wallpaper and very often lined, contained or seperated extensive repeat pattern areas and on the whole, when applied to a wall, tended to be set horizontally, rather than vertically.
The repeat tile very often followed a strict geometric pattern, usually because of its simplicity and ease with which to create a large scale covering that was still interesting as a large pattern and did not become bland, unattractive and indistinctive the larger it got. Medieval inspired Gothic patterns proved to be particularly popular for this very reason.
The Campbell Tile Co 1875
As the century progressed, repeat pattern ceramic tiles, while not disappearing entirely, did diminish in popularity at least in the domestic market. This was largely due to a combination in the rise of fashionable wallpapers and painted walls, and also the replacement of generally company designed tiles with that of the individual ceramic tile, very often with a reproduction of a piece of artwork. These individual 'art tiles' were sometimes framed, and more often placed within an area of plain tiles, or set as a small series around a fireplace or even placed into furniture, they very often had literary themes, such as scenes from Shakespeare or Tennyson.
By commissioning or at least buying the rights of a particular artist or artwork, a company could then attach a popular and fashionable artists name to the tile, thus securing its sale. Ceramic tiles were hugely popular within the nineteenth century and it has been said that Britain produced more tiles within the Victorian era than all other eras put together. Most were industrially produced, often on a massive scale, though some were hand produced and these tend to be thicker and more substantial than the mass produced ones.
Morris, Marshall, Falukner & Co Daisy 1870s
Posted by John hopper at 17:13
Labels: 1870s, artist, ceramics, design, designer, pattern, tile, victorian
3 comments:
Blue said...
The Foreign office has brilliant floors of patterned and inlaid tile, I think. Palace of Westminster, too.
31 July 2009 02:06
John hopper said...
Yes they do. Also, most Victorian city and town halls up and down the country have some form of repeat tile work, as do many public libraries, colleges etc.
31 July 2009 10:20
Margo said...
I'm glad tile is making a comeback in domestic design. It makes such a wonderful focal point in a room when designed and placed skillfully.
31 July 2009 19:23
SOME VIEWS OF BLOG SPOTS
Although produced in 1914, this Frida Hansen tapestry called Danaids' Jar with its overt Classical mythology theme, in some ways preempts the general look and feel of a large percentage of the Art Deco era.
Hansen, although very much involved in the propagation of the national culture and heritage of Norway, particularly when applied to textiles, was also deeply involved, as were many designers of the period, in the cultural heritage of the Classical world. While many used instantly recognisable motifs and general pattern work derived from that era, Hansen herself preferred to use narrative themes from the rich mythology of the Classical world.
These themes tied in very neatly with her portrayal, through tapestry, of the mythological record of Scandinavia and of Norway in particular. While Southern European in subject, the tapestry itself is Northern European in nature, with its subtle colour palette and subdued narrative and therefore follows closely her Scandinavian themed tapestries.
While this tapestry does, in many respects belong to the Art Nouveau movement with its asymmetrical flowering bushes and stylised Japanese inspired water motifs, it does hint quite strongly, particularly with its slim statuesque figures and heavily abstractly patterned trees, the coming of the more formally stylised Art Deco period.
It must be remembered that the Art Nouveau movement itself did not die away to be superseded by the Art Deco, but in many cases and across a number of mediums, it was able to transform itself into the following movement.
Early signs of this transformation are important and when looked for, can be found quite easily. Hansen's Danaids' Jar is one of those points of change. The tapestry was completed in 1914, the year of the outbreak of the First World War. The war itself is seen as a convenient break between the two decorative styles, but by the second decade of the twentieth century the Art Nouveau movement itself was already in the stages of transformation, and if the war had not taken place it would have been easier to have seen those changes taking place. Because of the war, it is now convenient for many to say that the Art Nouveau decorative style died sometime before 1914, while that of the Art Deco started sometime after 1918.
The design and decorative world is a complex and untidy one, with influences, cross-overs and transformations at all points of its history. It is difficult to tie it into a convenient timetable and sometimes we just have to say that a design piece is a bit Art Nouveau and a bit Art Deco.
Posted by John hopper at 17:41 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1910s, art deco, art nouveau, design, designer, norwegian, tapestry, weave, woven
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Repeat Pattern Ceramic Tiles
Minton Hollins & Co 1870
While a repeat pattern is an easy enough option to reproduce within a ceramic tile scenario, it was not necessarily extensively used over a long period, and if so, was often relegated to less prestigious areas of a domestic home, like a kitchen or hall for example. However, it was used effectively within large commercial and public buildings to cover vast areas of wall and floor with complex pattern work that has often outlasted the initial use of the building and outlived its occupiers.
Minton & Co 1871
The tiles shown here were all produced in the 1870s and are typical examples of repeat pattern that was intended for either large or small scale coverage of a wall or floor. Often the tile was non-directional which meant that any straight edge of a tile could be placed next to another without having to allow for the direction or progression of the pattern. However, some tiles were directional though still part of a repeat pattern, as can be seen in the William Morris Daisy design, these had to be placed in a certain direction for the repeat pattern to work.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co Daisy 1870s
Also included is a border ceramic tile which was repeatable only on two sides rather than the four. The tiles were usually designed with thick borders on the two unrepeatable sides so as not to allow the repeat to follow both vertically and horizontally, thus creating a thin line. These border tiles tended to form the same function as a border wallpaper and very often lined, contained or seperated extensive repeat pattern areas and on the whole, when applied to a wall, tended to be set horizontally, rather than vertically.
The repeat tile very often followed a strict geometric pattern, usually because of its simplicity and ease with which to create a large scale covering that was still interesting as a large pattern and did not become bland, unattractive and indistinctive the larger it got. Medieval inspired Gothic patterns proved to be particularly popular for this very reason.
The Campbell Tile Co 1875
As the century progressed, repeat pattern ceramic tiles, while not disappearing entirely, did diminish in popularity at least in the domestic market. This was largely due to a combination in the rise of fashionable wallpapers and painted walls, and also the replacement of generally company designed tiles with that of the individual ceramic tile, very often with a reproduction of a piece of artwork. These individual 'art tiles' were sometimes framed, and more often placed within an area of plain tiles, or set as a small series around a fireplace or even placed into furniture, they very often had literary themes, such as scenes from Shakespeare or Tennyson.
By commissioning or at least buying the rights of a particular artist or artwork, a company could then attach a popular and fashionable artists name to the tile, thus securing its sale. Ceramic tiles were hugely popular within the nineteenth century and it has been said that Britain produced more tiles within the Victorian era than all other eras put together. Most were industrially produced, often on a massive scale, though some were hand produced and these tend to be thicker and more substantial than the mass produced ones.
Morris, Marshall, Falukner & Co Daisy 1870s
Posted by John hopper at 17:13 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1870s, artist, ceramics, design, designer, pattern, tile, victorian
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Ben Rose and Meteoric Wallpaper
Ben Rose Meteoric wallpaper design 1965
Ben Rose was a trained fine artist that turned to design and consequently created a successful business and career for himself. He set up Ben Rose Inc in 1946 straight after the Second World War and was soon able to tap into the burgeoning interiors market, fed by the buoyant American economy.
He was successfully able to interpret and often to anticipate changes within the market throughout the 1950s and 1960s. However, he was also uncompromising in his faith in modern textile and wallpaper design work and never went down the road of traditional and reactionary work.
By 1965 when this Meteoric wallpaper design was produced for his company, the interiors market had begun to change and there was a shift in emphasis as a number of companies began to start playing cautiously with the market by supplying more traditional and revival themes. However, Rose continued to challenge that market, and so therefore continued to produce both textile and wallpaper design work that was abstract in composition and outlook.
The Meteoric wallpaper design shown here does tend more towards the architectural theme with a special emphasis on the vertical rather than horizontal or mixed pattern. There was a reason for dealing in architectural and therefore large scale pattern. The interiors market was beginning to change in more ways than just fashion or a shift in customer conception. Many companies were finding that some of their most profitable customers were large hotel chains and general commercial enterprises. The domestic market, although still important, was to become increasingly less so as the century progressed, and although Rose's Meteoric design was still unveiled in 1965 as a domestic interior wallpaper, it does reflect the gradually changing market from domestic to commercial.
By understanding this shift from the home to the hotel, it is perhaps easier to interpret at least some of the movement towards large scale geometric and abstract forms in textile and wallpaper design during this period and after. It was obviously more profitable to produce work that was to be seen across an entire group of hotels or conference centres than it was for individual homes. It also gave design and interior companies a higher profile within the public commercial market than the private domestic one.
It is perhaps unfair to say that companies gave an uneven emphasis to the two sectors of their business, with the commercial getting more attention than the domestic market, but the gradual decline in the standard of contemporary design work within the domestic market as the century drew to a close, and the subsequent decline in interest by that market, may not be entirely coincidental.
Posted by John hopper at 17:44 6 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1960s, abstract, design, designer, interiors, pattern, wallpaper
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Sidney Barnsley's Oak Dresser
Sidney Barnsley Oak dresser 1896
The career of Sidney Barnsley is very much tied up with that of his brother Ernest and also that of Ernest Gimson. However, Barnsley should also be seen as an individual as well as part of a successful Arts & Crafts team.
Barnsley more or less taught himself furniture making from scratch and although, like his brother he was a qualified architect, while Ernest pursued that career, it was furniture making that was Sidney's first and lasting love. He often entered his designed and hand made furniture into national Arts & Crafts exhibitions, with his work being well received.
Barnsley moved, with his brother and Gimson, to the Cotswolds in 1893, where they hoped to live the life that had always been an integral part of the Arts & Crafts philosophy from its very early days, and while the rural idyll that it idolised may have not have been quite what many city based architects and designers were expecting, Sidney Barnsley thrived in the atmosphere of traditional craftsmanship and skills that were often forgotten or seen as irrelevant within many urban centres.
The oak dresser shown above, that he produced in 1896, shows his appreciation and admiration of the traditional and often underrated skills of the local Cotswold population. The plain and functional dresser, with no decoration or ornamentation, appears to be stark by comparison to much of the contemporary furniture then available in Britain, and certainly appears painfully plain compared to the new Art Nouveau furniture that was starting to appear in various centres of Europe.
When seen in its natural environment, as in the picture below, as part of Barnsley's own home, rather than as a museum piece, the dresser makes even more sense and fits well into its plain but honest interior. Barnsley's home, with its large fireplace and simple table, chairs, settle and dresser, is a perfect example of how an Arts & Crafts home should look, though often interiors inspired by the movement were not this authentic or this committed.
The dresser and other pieces created by Barnsley, in a way celebrates the traditions of the English working man. It is unfussy and practical and by example extremely unaristocratic in its makeup. Also by producing the furniture in oak, and so much of the English Arts & Crafts furniture was made from this particular type of wood, a fundamental and intrinsically understandable connection was being made between the English consumer and the Arts & Crafts furniture designer.
Oak was considered to be the common backbone of the English interior throughout its history. Much of the medieval, Tudor and Elizabethan furniture was produced in oak, as was much of the everyday furniture of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. It was only after the general importation of expensive and exotic woods, particularly from South America, that the aristocracy were able to distance themselves from the oak furniture of the masses.
By producing simple country furniture in oak, designers like Barnsley were in fact aligning themselves, at least as designers, with that of the local furniture maker, rather than those that supplied the aristocracy. However, there is always a catch with the Arts & Crafts movement. These simple pieces of country furniture could never actually be owned by simple country people. They often had to make do with the cheaper mass produced pieces that the Arts & Crafts movement despised, while their own homage to country craftsman skills, ended up with the same aristocracy that the movement held in such low regard.
However, Barnsley's furniture does make a statement and is an important element in the history of English furniture design. It may not be a Chippendale, but it is probably all the more important because it is not.
Sidney Barnsley's house Pinbury, Gloucestershire 1890s
Posted by John hopper at 17:08 8 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1890s, arts and crafts, design, designer, furniture, oak, victorian
Monday, 27 July 2009
Al Eklund and the Stobo Company
Al Eklund Fagelbur 1958
This design by Al Eklund, produced for the Swedish company Stobo in 1958, is called Fagelbur. The design is made up of a vast number of seemingly random crossed and overlapping lines. This rough lattice pattern could well be a representation of the weaving technique used to produce fabric, and with the design being reproduced on a coarse and fairly rough woven linen, it is as if the pattern is copying, or even reinterpreting the base fabric. However, when the Swedish name of the textile is translated into English as Birdcage, the design takes on a different connotation as it could then be interpreted as the latticed bars of a birdcage, or perhaps it could be seen that the oval motifs are the birdcages, with the rest of the pattern taking inspiration from these motifs. In other words the design is open for interpretation and reinterpretation.
Eklund produced a number of textile designs for Stobo during the 1950s that were very similar in style to Fagelbur. Many took on the same monotone and dense appearance, so that they tended to appear as brooding abstract canvasses, rather than as interior furnishing fabrics.
Eklund was in fact a graphic designer, who was commissioned by Gota Tragardh, the then artistic director of Stobo, to produce a range of contemporary and hopefully uncompromising textile design work for the company. Along with a number of other carefully chosen leading Swedish artists and designers from a variety of disciplines, Tragardh hoped to make a name for the company nationally and more importantly internationally, by pushing Stobo into the cutting edge of 1950s textile design. To achieve this she encouraged her commissioned artists and designers to approach the textile medium with a fresh and uncluttered outlook and with a minimum of preconceptions of what a textile design should be.
She largely succeeded, as the work produced during this period for Stobo was some of the most innovative and uncompromising textile design work on offer anywhere in the world. The fact that Stobo itself did not survive the 1960s is a shame, but sometimes a company or a set of designers can be a little too ahead of their time and can only be appreciated with a little hindsight.
Fifty years on, which is more than enough time for hindsight to kick in, the textile design work commissioned by Tragardh, like Eklund's and the general output of Stobo, must be seen as some of the most inspirational and innovative work achieved during the 1950s. A decade which in itself was a period that was no stranger to inspirational and innovative design work from any number of disciplines.
Posted by John hopper at 18:07 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1950s, design, designer, fabrics, interiors, pattern, scandinavia, swedish, textile
Friday, 24 July 2009
Josep Maria Jujol and the Torre de la Creu
Josep Maria Jujol Torre de la Creu, Barcelona 1913
The Torre de la Creu, just outside Barcelona, was designed in 1913 by Josep Maria Jujol a former assistant of the Barcelona based architect Antoni Gaudi.
The building actually consists of two separate properties within the same structure. What is probably unique about the building is the way that it has taken the idea of the circle as its starting point, rather than the more traditional square or rectangle. The building is constructed using six intersecting circles as a floor plan. These circles then become the base of six cylinders which make up the bulk of the building. By varying the height of these cylinders, an uneven and asymmetrical roof line was easily and effectively achieved. The building was then split down the middle with a dividing wall to create the two properties.
The building is unique and even if the plans were repeated, no two buildings would be the same. There is an element of art in this form of structure that lends little to the idea of mass-produced housing or of the domestic setting being more like a machine than a dwelling. Jujol's organic housing, although based loosely within the Art Nouveau movement, has many similarities to the idea of the Art House, a domestic building that is created as a whole, both inside and out, as an individual construction that does not have to necessarily relate to any other building in its vicinity.
Jujol was part of the architectural school of Barcelona, led by Gaudi. While popular within the city and Catalonia generally, this sometimes extreme and certainly individual approach to architectural design did not travel well outside its core area, as many who were not familiar with with the style and particularly the history of Catalonia were often confused, so that the borrowing of specifically Spanish based Islamic and medieval decoration and architectural formulas meant little to outsiders. Consequently the style that became so closely associated with Gaudi and his small group of followers, is often considered to be insular and remote from the mainstream and international architectural movement of the twentieth century.
However, as regards the idea of organic and fluid building techniques and ideas towards the creative use of space within often dull domestic parameters, the Torre de la Creu building makes a contribution towards our understanding of what exactly it is to live in a home that is both individual and inspiring.
Posted by John hopper at 16:45 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: architect, architectural, architecture, art nouveau, barcelona, design, designer, spain
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Art Nouveau and Electric Lighting
Emile Galle Inkcaps cast iron and glass lamp 1902
There was an often bizarre assembly of electric lighting when, after initial experimentation and testing, the idea of the use of electricity to light domestic homes was first introduced.
In many cases electric lighting was seen firstly as a novelty, and at best a support for the prime lighting techniques of gas or oil. Bulbs were often of such a low wattage and had such a short life span that they couldn't hope to compete with other forms of lighting that had a much longer history of dependability. Also, electricity supplies were often intermittent and were fraught with a number of teething problems that many of the new companies supplying the technology, were ill prepared to deal with.
The early electric lamps shown here by Galle, Tiffany and Majorelle were all produced within a couple of years of the start of the new twentieth century. However, due to a lack of understanding of the new technology and a need to display electricity as a novelty rather than as a necessity, the function of the lamp has been submerged, thus producing a piece of equipment that has little practical use and is more closely affiliated with a piece of sculpture than with any form of practical lighting.
Louis Comfort Tiffany Pond Lily lamp 1900
A good example of the confusion and lack of understanding of the function of electricity in the home, was the impractical application of lamp shades. Rather than being clear, or at least lightly coloured, many were often made from opaque glass that was so heavily coloured or patterned, that there was little if any artificial light available for an interior, from an already feeble electric bulb.
This implies that the technology had arrived before the designer was fully aware of the constraints and foibles of that new technology. Admittedly electric lighting was very often packaged and presented to the public as an amusement. Many of the carnivals and funfairs of the period had venues that were lit by electricity. The technology may very well have been portrayed as the wonder of the age, but to many it was still very much a case of Yes, but what do we do with it?
As the century progressed and electricity became much more of a casual and everyday technology, manufacturers soon learnt to deal with the new opportunities and admittedly also the constraints of electricity, and much more practical applications, particularly in the form of lighting, were available for domestic use. However, the early Art Nouveau attempts to deal with the coming modern world are an interesting example of a the confusion that can be caused by a technology with no previous history and therefore no standards or guidelines. Misunderstandings between designers and the real applications of a future technology have been a fact of life of the twentieth century, as they will be of the twenty first.
Hansen, although very much involved in the propagation of the national culture and heritage of Norway, particularly when applied to textiles, was also deeply involved, as were many designers of the period, in the cultural heritage of the Classical world. While many used instantly recognisable motifs and general pattern work derived from that era, Hansen herself preferred to use narrative themes from the rich mythology of the Classical world.
These themes tied in very neatly with her portrayal, through tapestry, of the mythological record of Scandinavia and of Norway in particular. While Southern European in subject, the tapestry itself is Northern European in nature, with its subtle colour palette and subdued narrative and therefore follows closely her Scandinavian themed tapestries.
While this tapestry does, in many respects belong to the Art Nouveau movement with its asymmetrical flowering bushes and stylised Japanese inspired water motifs, it does hint quite strongly, particularly with its slim statuesque figures and heavily abstractly patterned trees, the coming of the more formally stylised Art Deco period.
It must be remembered that the Art Nouveau movement itself did not die away to be superseded by the Art Deco, but in many cases and across a number of mediums, it was able to transform itself into the following movement.
Early signs of this transformation are important and when looked for, can be found quite easily. Hansen's Danaids' Jar is one of those points of change. The tapestry was completed in 1914, the year of the outbreak of the First World War. The war itself is seen as a convenient break between the two decorative styles, but by the second decade of the twentieth century the Art Nouveau movement itself was already in the stages of transformation, and if the war had not taken place it would have been easier to have seen those changes taking place. Because of the war, it is now convenient for many to say that the Art Nouveau decorative style died sometime before 1914, while that of the Art Deco started sometime after 1918.
The design and decorative world is a complex and untidy one, with influences, cross-overs and transformations at all points of its history. It is difficult to tie it into a convenient timetable and sometimes we just have to say that a design piece is a bit Art Nouveau and a bit Art Deco.
Posted by John hopper at 17:41 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1910s, art deco, art nouveau, design, designer, norwegian, tapestry, weave, woven
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Repeat Pattern Ceramic Tiles
Minton Hollins & Co 1870
While a repeat pattern is an easy enough option to reproduce within a ceramic tile scenario, it was not necessarily extensively used over a long period, and if so, was often relegated to less prestigious areas of a domestic home, like a kitchen or hall for example. However, it was used effectively within large commercial and public buildings to cover vast areas of wall and floor with complex pattern work that has often outlasted the initial use of the building and outlived its occupiers.
Minton & Co 1871
The tiles shown here were all produced in the 1870s and are typical examples of repeat pattern that was intended for either large or small scale coverage of a wall or floor. Often the tile was non-directional which meant that any straight edge of a tile could be placed next to another without having to allow for the direction or progression of the pattern. However, some tiles were directional though still part of a repeat pattern, as can be seen in the William Morris Daisy design, these had to be placed in a certain direction for the repeat pattern to work.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co Daisy 1870s
Also included is a border ceramic tile which was repeatable only on two sides rather than the four. The tiles were usually designed with thick borders on the two unrepeatable sides so as not to allow the repeat to follow both vertically and horizontally, thus creating a thin line. These border tiles tended to form the same function as a border wallpaper and very often lined, contained or seperated extensive repeat pattern areas and on the whole, when applied to a wall, tended to be set horizontally, rather than vertically.
The repeat tile very often followed a strict geometric pattern, usually because of its simplicity and ease with which to create a large scale covering that was still interesting as a large pattern and did not become bland, unattractive and indistinctive the larger it got. Medieval inspired Gothic patterns proved to be particularly popular for this very reason.
The Campbell Tile Co 1875
As the century progressed, repeat pattern ceramic tiles, while not disappearing entirely, did diminish in popularity at least in the domestic market. This was largely due to a combination in the rise of fashionable wallpapers and painted walls, and also the replacement of generally company designed tiles with that of the individual ceramic tile, very often with a reproduction of a piece of artwork. These individual 'art tiles' were sometimes framed, and more often placed within an area of plain tiles, or set as a small series around a fireplace or even placed into furniture, they very often had literary themes, such as scenes from Shakespeare or Tennyson.
By commissioning or at least buying the rights of a particular artist or artwork, a company could then attach a popular and fashionable artists name to the tile, thus securing its sale. Ceramic tiles were hugely popular within the nineteenth century and it has been said that Britain produced more tiles within the Victorian era than all other eras put together. Most were industrially produced, often on a massive scale, though some were hand produced and these tend to be thicker and more substantial than the mass produced ones.
Morris, Marshall, Falukner & Co Daisy 1870s
Posted by John hopper at 17:13 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1870s, artist, ceramics, design, designer, pattern, tile, victorian
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Ben Rose and Meteoric Wallpaper
Ben Rose Meteoric wallpaper design 1965
Ben Rose was a trained fine artist that turned to design and consequently created a successful business and career for himself. He set up Ben Rose Inc in 1946 straight after the Second World War and was soon able to tap into the burgeoning interiors market, fed by the buoyant American economy.
He was successfully able to interpret and often to anticipate changes within the market throughout the 1950s and 1960s. However, he was also uncompromising in his faith in modern textile and wallpaper design work and never went down the road of traditional and reactionary work.
By 1965 when this Meteoric wallpaper design was produced for his company, the interiors market had begun to change and there was a shift in emphasis as a number of companies began to start playing cautiously with the market by supplying more traditional and revival themes. However, Rose continued to challenge that market, and so therefore continued to produce both textile and wallpaper design work that was abstract in composition and outlook.
The Meteoric wallpaper design shown here does tend more towards the architectural theme with a special emphasis on the vertical rather than horizontal or mixed pattern. There was a reason for dealing in architectural and therefore large scale pattern. The interiors market was beginning to change in more ways than just fashion or a shift in customer conception. Many companies were finding that some of their most profitable customers were large hotel chains and general commercial enterprises. The domestic market, although still important, was to become increasingly less so as the century progressed, and although Rose's Meteoric design was still unveiled in 1965 as a domestic interior wallpaper, it does reflect the gradually changing market from domestic to commercial.
By understanding this shift from the home to the hotel, it is perhaps easier to interpret at least some of the movement towards large scale geometric and abstract forms in textile and wallpaper design during this period and after. It was obviously more profitable to produce work that was to be seen across an entire group of hotels or conference centres than it was for individual homes. It also gave design and interior companies a higher profile within the public commercial market than the private domestic one.
It is perhaps unfair to say that companies gave an uneven emphasis to the two sectors of their business, with the commercial getting more attention than the domestic market, but the gradual decline in the standard of contemporary design work within the domestic market as the century drew to a close, and the subsequent decline in interest by that market, may not be entirely coincidental.
Posted by John hopper at 17:44 6 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1960s, abstract, design, designer, interiors, pattern, wallpaper
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Sidney Barnsley's Oak Dresser
Sidney Barnsley Oak dresser 1896
The career of Sidney Barnsley is very much tied up with that of his brother Ernest and also that of Ernest Gimson. However, Barnsley should also be seen as an individual as well as part of a successful Arts & Crafts team.
Barnsley more or less taught himself furniture making from scratch and although, like his brother he was a qualified architect, while Ernest pursued that career, it was furniture making that was Sidney's first and lasting love. He often entered his designed and hand made furniture into national Arts & Crafts exhibitions, with his work being well received.
Barnsley moved, with his brother and Gimson, to the Cotswolds in 1893, where they hoped to live the life that had always been an integral part of the Arts & Crafts philosophy from its very early days, and while the rural idyll that it idolised may have not have been quite what many city based architects and designers were expecting, Sidney Barnsley thrived in the atmosphere of traditional craftsmanship and skills that were often forgotten or seen as irrelevant within many urban centres.
The oak dresser shown above, that he produced in 1896, shows his appreciation and admiration of the traditional and often underrated skills of the local Cotswold population. The plain and functional dresser, with no decoration or ornamentation, appears to be stark by comparison to much of the contemporary furniture then available in Britain, and certainly appears painfully plain compared to the new Art Nouveau furniture that was starting to appear in various centres of Europe.
When seen in its natural environment, as in the picture below, as part of Barnsley's own home, rather than as a museum piece, the dresser makes even more sense and fits well into its plain but honest interior. Barnsley's home, with its large fireplace and simple table, chairs, settle and dresser, is a perfect example of how an Arts & Crafts home should look, though often interiors inspired by the movement were not this authentic or this committed.
The dresser and other pieces created by Barnsley, in a way celebrates the traditions of the English working man. It is unfussy and practical and by example extremely unaristocratic in its makeup. Also by producing the furniture in oak, and so much of the English Arts & Crafts furniture was made from this particular type of wood, a fundamental and intrinsically understandable connection was being made between the English consumer and the Arts & Crafts furniture designer.
Oak was considered to be the common backbone of the English interior throughout its history. Much of the medieval, Tudor and Elizabethan furniture was produced in oak, as was much of the everyday furniture of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. It was only after the general importation of expensive and exotic woods, particularly from South America, that the aristocracy were able to distance themselves from the oak furniture of the masses.
By producing simple country furniture in oak, designers like Barnsley were in fact aligning themselves, at least as designers, with that of the local furniture maker, rather than those that supplied the aristocracy. However, there is always a catch with the Arts & Crafts movement. These simple pieces of country furniture could never actually be owned by simple country people. They often had to make do with the cheaper mass produced pieces that the Arts & Crafts movement despised, while their own homage to country craftsman skills, ended up with the same aristocracy that the movement held in such low regard.
However, Barnsley's furniture does make a statement and is an important element in the history of English furniture design. It may not be a Chippendale, but it is probably all the more important because it is not.
Sidney Barnsley's house Pinbury, Gloucestershire 1890s
Posted by John hopper at 17:08 8 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1890s, arts and crafts, design, designer, furniture, oak, victorian
Monday, 27 July 2009
Al Eklund and the Stobo Company
Al Eklund Fagelbur 1958
This design by Al Eklund, produced for the Swedish company Stobo in 1958, is called Fagelbur. The design is made up of a vast number of seemingly random crossed and overlapping lines. This rough lattice pattern could well be a representation of the weaving technique used to produce fabric, and with the design being reproduced on a coarse and fairly rough woven linen, it is as if the pattern is copying, or even reinterpreting the base fabric. However, when the Swedish name of the textile is translated into English as Birdcage, the design takes on a different connotation as it could then be interpreted as the latticed bars of a birdcage, or perhaps it could be seen that the oval motifs are the birdcages, with the rest of the pattern taking inspiration from these motifs. In other words the design is open for interpretation and reinterpretation.
Eklund produced a number of textile designs for Stobo during the 1950s that were very similar in style to Fagelbur. Many took on the same monotone and dense appearance, so that they tended to appear as brooding abstract canvasses, rather than as interior furnishing fabrics.
Eklund was in fact a graphic designer, who was commissioned by Gota Tragardh, the then artistic director of Stobo, to produce a range of contemporary and hopefully uncompromising textile design work for the company. Along with a number of other carefully chosen leading Swedish artists and designers from a variety of disciplines, Tragardh hoped to make a name for the company nationally and more importantly internationally, by pushing Stobo into the cutting edge of 1950s textile design. To achieve this she encouraged her commissioned artists and designers to approach the textile medium with a fresh and uncluttered outlook and with a minimum of preconceptions of what a textile design should be.
She largely succeeded, as the work produced during this period for Stobo was some of the most innovative and uncompromising textile design work on offer anywhere in the world. The fact that Stobo itself did not survive the 1960s is a shame, but sometimes a company or a set of designers can be a little too ahead of their time and can only be appreciated with a little hindsight.
Fifty years on, which is more than enough time for hindsight to kick in, the textile design work commissioned by Tragardh, like Eklund's and the general output of Stobo, must be seen as some of the most inspirational and innovative work achieved during the 1950s. A decade which in itself was a period that was no stranger to inspirational and innovative design work from any number of disciplines.
Posted by John hopper at 18:07 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: 1950s, design, designer, fabrics, interiors, pattern, scandinavia, swedish, textile
Friday, 24 July 2009
Josep Maria Jujol and the Torre de la Creu
Josep Maria Jujol Torre de la Creu, Barcelona 1913
The Torre de la Creu, just outside Barcelona, was designed in 1913 by Josep Maria Jujol a former assistant of the Barcelona based architect Antoni Gaudi.
The building actually consists of two separate properties within the same structure. What is probably unique about the building is the way that it has taken the idea of the circle as its starting point, rather than the more traditional square or rectangle. The building is constructed using six intersecting circles as a floor plan. These circles then become the base of six cylinders which make up the bulk of the building. By varying the height of these cylinders, an uneven and asymmetrical roof line was easily and effectively achieved. The building was then split down the middle with a dividing wall to create the two properties.
The building is unique and even if the plans were repeated, no two buildings would be the same. There is an element of art in this form of structure that lends little to the idea of mass-produced housing or of the domestic setting being more like a machine than a dwelling. Jujol's organic housing, although based loosely within the Art Nouveau movement, has many similarities to the idea of the Art House, a domestic building that is created as a whole, both inside and out, as an individual construction that does not have to necessarily relate to any other building in its vicinity.
Jujol was part of the architectural school of Barcelona, led by Gaudi. While popular within the city and Catalonia generally, this sometimes extreme and certainly individual approach to architectural design did not travel well outside its core area, as many who were not familiar with with the style and particularly the history of Catalonia were often confused, so that the borrowing of specifically Spanish based Islamic and medieval decoration and architectural formulas meant little to outsiders. Consequently the style that became so closely associated with Gaudi and his small group of followers, is often considered to be insular and remote from the mainstream and international architectural movement of the twentieth century.
However, as regards the idea of organic and fluid building techniques and ideas towards the creative use of space within often dull domestic parameters, the Torre de la Creu building makes a contribution towards our understanding of what exactly it is to live in a home that is both individual and inspiring.
Posted by John hopper at 16:45 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: architect, architectural, architecture, art nouveau, barcelona, design, designer, spain
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Art Nouveau and Electric Lighting
Emile Galle Inkcaps cast iron and glass lamp 1902
There was an often bizarre assembly of electric lighting when, after initial experimentation and testing, the idea of the use of electricity to light domestic homes was first introduced.
In many cases electric lighting was seen firstly as a novelty, and at best a support for the prime lighting techniques of gas or oil. Bulbs were often of such a low wattage and had such a short life span that they couldn't hope to compete with other forms of lighting that had a much longer history of dependability. Also, electricity supplies were often intermittent and were fraught with a number of teething problems that many of the new companies supplying the technology, were ill prepared to deal with.
The early electric lamps shown here by Galle, Tiffany and Majorelle were all produced within a couple of years of the start of the new twentieth century. However, due to a lack of understanding of the new technology and a need to display electricity as a novelty rather than as a necessity, the function of the lamp has been submerged, thus producing a piece of equipment that has little practical use and is more closely affiliated with a piece of sculpture than with any form of practical lighting.
Louis Comfort Tiffany Pond Lily lamp 1900
A good example of the confusion and lack of understanding of the function of electricity in the home, was the impractical application of lamp shades. Rather than being clear, or at least lightly coloured, many were often made from opaque glass that was so heavily coloured or patterned, that there was little if any artificial light available for an interior, from an already feeble electric bulb.
This implies that the technology had arrived before the designer was fully aware of the constraints and foibles of that new technology. Admittedly electric lighting was very often packaged and presented to the public as an amusement. Many of the carnivals and funfairs of the period had venues that were lit by electricity. The technology may very well have been portrayed as the wonder of the age, but to many it was still very much a case of Yes, but what do we do with it?
As the century progressed and electricity became much more of a casual and everyday technology, manufacturers soon learnt to deal with the new opportunities and admittedly also the constraints of electricity, and much more practical applications, particularly in the form of lighting, were available for domestic use. However, the early Art Nouveau attempts to deal with the coming modern world are an interesting example of a the confusion that can be caused by a technology with no previous history and therefore no standards or guidelines. Misunderstandings between designers and the real applications of a future technology have been a fact of life of the twentieth century, as they will be of the twenty first.
Textile machineries
The term ‘Textile' is a Latin word which comes from the word ‘texere' which means ‘to weave'. Textile originally referred to a woven fabric but latter on the term textile as well as the plural textiles refers to fibers, filaments and yarns.
Textile machineries refer to the various machineries used in different stages of manufacturing of textile products in textile industries.
Textile machineries have a wide range of uses in various stages of production.
History of textile machinery
Textile Industry its evolution and progress forms an integral part of the history of textile machinery. Since the dawn of civilization, clothing was one of the man's primary needs. This led to the spinning of fiber into yarn and the cloth weaving which finally resulted in innovation of new technologies for textile industries.
Early spinning:
The first textile machinery used was the spinning wheel. It first developed in India and then in 14 th century it reached Europe. History of loom:
Loom is ancient in origin and the modern invention to increase its skill was the flying shuttle which John Kay patented in 1733. Textual Mechanization
The initial enhancement in the early spinning machines took place in in 1737 when Lewis Paul and John Wyatt discovered the roller method of spinning jenny and water frame by Samuel Crompton in 1779.
Types of Textile Machineries Textile Machineries comprise primarily of two types:
• Textile process machineries
• Textile working machineries and equipments and accessories
Various Textile process machineries
• Cloth finishing machines
• Knitting machines
• Fabric seaming machineries
• Crochet machines
• Lace making machines
• Label making machines
• Quilting machines
• Textile finishing machines
• Textile sourcing machines
• Textile spinning machines
• Textile winding machines
• Textile edge control device
• Thread winding machines
• Tufting machines
• Weaving machines
• Zipper making machines
• Woolen mill machines
Various Textile working machineries and equipments and accessories
• Applique scaling machines
• Attaching machines
• Cloth measuring machines
• Cloth cutting machines
• Embroidery machinery
• Garment machinery
• Industrial sewing machine
• Laundry dryers
• Monogramming machines
• Textile bleaching machines
• Textile folding machine
• Textile trimmers machine
Uses of Textile Machineries It is primarily used in cotton mill, covering plants, wool mill, garment factory; man made factories of fur and trades goods inspection units for the entire length of fabric rolling. It is especially beneficial for inspecting and rolling export fabrics.
TYPES OF TEXTILES
textile is a cloth, which is either woven by hand or machine. "Textile" has traditionally meant, "a woven fabric". The term comes from the Latin word texere, meaning to weave.
Fibers are the raw materials for all fabrics. Some fibers occur in nature as fine strands that can be twisted into yarns. These natural fibers come from plants, animals, and minerals. For most of history, people had only natural fibers to use in making cloth. But modern science has learned how to produce fibers by chemical and technical means. Today, these manufactured fibers account for more than two-thirds of the fibers processed by U.S. textile mills.
Plants provide more textile fibers than do animals or minerals. Cotton fibers produce soft, absorbent fabrics that are widely used for clothing, sheets, and towels. Fibers of the flax plant are made into linen. The strength and beauty of linen have made it a popular fabric for fine tablecloths, napkins, and handkerchiefs.
The main animal fiber used for textiles is wool. Another animal fiber, silk, produces one of the most luxurious fabrics. Sheep supply most of the wool, but members of the camel family and some goats also furnish wool. Wool provides warm, comfortable fabrics for dresses, suits, and sweaters. Silk comes from cocoons spun by silkworms. Workers unwind the cocoons to obtain long, natural filaments. Fabrics made from silk fibers have great luster and softness and can be dyed brilliant colors. Silk is especially popular for scarfs and neckties.
Most manufactured fibers are made from wood pulp, cotton linters, or petrochemicals. Petrochemicals are chemicals made from crude oil and natural gas. The chief fibers manufactured from petrochemicals include nylon, polyester, acrylic, and olefin. Nylon has exceptional strength, wears well, and is easy to launder. It is popular for hosiery and other clothing and for carpeting and upholstery. Such products as conveyor belts and fire hoses are also made of nylon.
Most textiles are produced by twisting fibers into yarns and then knitting or weaving the yarns into a fabric. This method of making cloth has been used for thousands of years. But throughout most of that time, workers did the twisting, knitting, or weaving largely by hand. With today's modern machinery, textile mills can manufacture as much fabric in a few seconds as it once took workers weeks to produce by hand.
Fibers are the raw materials for all fabrics. Some fibers occur in nature as fine strands that can be twisted into yarns. These natural fibers come from plants, animals, and minerals. For most of history, people had only natural fibers to use in making cloth. But modern science has learned how to produce fibers by chemical and technical means. Today, these manufactured fibers account for more than two-thirds of the fibers processed by U.S. textile mills.
Plants provide more textile fibers than do animals or minerals. Cotton fibers produce soft, absorbent fabrics that are widely used for clothing, sheets, and towels. Fibers of the flax plant are made into linen. The strength and beauty of linen have made it a popular fabric for fine tablecloths, napkins, and handkerchiefs.
The main animal fiber used for textiles is wool. Another animal fiber, silk, produces one of the most luxurious fabrics. Sheep supply most of the wool, but members of the camel family and some goats also furnish wool. Wool provides warm, comfortable fabrics for dresses, suits, and sweaters. Silk comes from cocoons spun by silkworms. Workers unwind the cocoons to obtain long, natural filaments. Fabrics made from silk fibers have great luster and softness and can be dyed brilliant colors. Silk is especially popular for scarfs and neckties.
Most manufactured fibers are made from wood pulp, cotton linters, or petrochemicals. Petrochemicals are chemicals made from crude oil and natural gas. The chief fibers manufactured from petrochemicals include nylon, polyester, acrylic, and olefin. Nylon has exceptional strength, wears well, and is easy to launder. It is popular for hosiery and other clothing and for carpeting and upholstery. Such products as conveyor belts and fire hoses are also made of nylon.
Most textiles are produced by twisting fibers into yarns and then knitting or weaving the yarns into a fabric. This method of making cloth has been used for thousands of years. But throughout most of that time, workers did the twisting, knitting, or weaving largely by hand. With today's modern machinery, textile mills can manufacture as much fabric in a few seconds as it once took workers weeks to produce by hand.
History during the industrial revolution
History during the industrial revolution
Main article: Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
The key British industry at the beginning of the 18th century was the production of textiles made with wool from the large sheep-farming areas in the Midlands and across the country (created as a result of land-clearance and enclosure). Handlooms and spinning wheels were the tools of the trade of the weavers in their cottages, and this was a labour-intensive activity providing employment throughout Britain, with major centers being the West Country; Norwich and environs; and the West Riding of Yorkshire. The export trade in woolen goods accounted for more than a quarter of British exports during most of the 18th century, doubling between 1701 and 1770 [1]. Exports of the cotton industry – centered in Lancashire – had grown tenfold during this time, but still accounted for only a tenth of the value of the woolen trade.
The textile industry grew out of the industrial revolution in the 18th Century as mass production of clothing became a mainstream industry. Starting with the flying shuttle in 1733 inventions were made to speed up the textile manufacturing process. In 1738 Lewis Paul and John Wyatt patented the Roller Spinning machine and the flyer-and-bobbin system. Lewis Paul invented a carding machine in 1748, and by 1764 the spinning jenny had also been invented. In 1771, Richard Arkwright used waterwheels to power looms for the production of cotton cloth, his invention becoming known as the water frame. In 1784, Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom. With the spinning and weaving process now mechanized, cotton mills cropped up all over the North West of England, most notably in Manchester and its surrounding towns of Ashton-Under-Lyne, Stalybridge and Dukinfield.
Textile mills originally got their power from water wheels, and thus had to be situated along a river. With the invention of the steam engine, in the 1760
Main article: Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
The key British industry at the beginning of the 18th century was the production of textiles made with wool from the large sheep-farming areas in the Midlands and across the country (created as a result of land-clearance and enclosure). Handlooms and spinning wheels were the tools of the trade of the weavers in their cottages, and this was a labour-intensive activity providing employment throughout Britain, with major centers being the West Country; Norwich and environs; and the West Riding of Yorkshire. The export trade in woolen goods accounted for more than a quarter of British exports during most of the 18th century, doubling between 1701 and 1770 [1]. Exports of the cotton industry – centered in Lancashire – had grown tenfold during this time, but still accounted for only a tenth of the value of the woolen trade.
The textile industry grew out of the industrial revolution in the 18th Century as mass production of clothing became a mainstream industry. Starting with the flying shuttle in 1733 inventions were made to speed up the textile manufacturing process. In 1738 Lewis Paul and John Wyatt patented the Roller Spinning machine and the flyer-and-bobbin system. Lewis Paul invented a carding machine in 1748, and by 1764 the spinning jenny had also been invented. In 1771, Richard Arkwright used waterwheels to power looms for the production of cotton cloth, his invention becoming known as the water frame. In 1784, Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom. With the spinning and weaving process now mechanized, cotton mills cropped up all over the North West of England, most notably in Manchester and its surrounding towns of Ashton-Under-Lyne, Stalybridge and Dukinfield.
Textile mills originally got their power from water wheels, and thus had to be situated along a river. With the invention of the steam engine, in the 1760
COTTON STAGE
Cotton stage
Prior to the manufacturing processes being mechanized, textiles were produced in the home, and excess sold for extra money. Most cloth was made from either wool, cotton, or flax, depending on the era and location. For example, during the late medieval period, cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, without any knowledge of what it came from other than that it was a plant; noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville, writing in 1350, stated as fact the now-preposterous belief: "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry." This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in many European languages, such as German Baumwolle, which translates as "tree wool". By the end of the 16th century, cotton was cultivated throughout the warmer regions in Asia and the Americas. In Roman times, wool, linen and leather clothed the European population: the cotton of India was a curiosity that only naturalists had heard of, and silk, imported along the Silk Road from China, was an extravagant luxury. The use of flax fibre in the manufacturing of cloth in northern Europe dates back to Neolithic times.
Cloth was produced in the home, and the excess woven cloth was sold to merchants called clothiers who visited the village with their trains of pack-horses. Some of the cloth was made into clothes for people living in the same area and a large amount of cloth was exported.
The process of making cloth depends slightly on the fiber being used, but there are three main steps: preparation of fibers for spinning, spinning, and weaving or knitting. The preparation of the fibers differs the most depending on the fiber used. Flax requires retting and dressing, while wool requires carding and washing. The spinning and weaving processes are very similar between fibers though.
Spinning evolved from twisting the fibers by hand, to use of a drop spindle, to a spinning wheel. Spindles or parts of them have been found in very, very old archaeological sites; they may represent one of the earliest pieces of technology available to humankind. was invented in India between 500 and 1000 AD[1] It reached Europe via the Middle East in the European Middle Ages.
Weaving, done on a loom has been around for as long as spinning. There are some indications that weaving was already known in the Palaeolithic. An indistinct textile impression has been found at Pavlov, Moravia. Neolithic textiles are well known from finds in pile dwellings in Switzerland. One extant fragment from the Neolithic was found in Fayum at a site which dates to about 5000 BCE. There are many different types of looms, from a simple loom that dates back to the Vikings, to the standard floor loom.
Prior to the manufacturing processes being mechanized, textiles were produced in the home, and excess sold for extra money. Most cloth was made from either wool, cotton, or flax, depending on the era and location. For example, during the late medieval period, cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, without any knowledge of what it came from other than that it was a plant; noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville, writing in 1350, stated as fact the now-preposterous belief: "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry." This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in many European languages, such as German Baumwolle, which translates as "tree wool". By the end of the 16th century, cotton was cultivated throughout the warmer regions in Asia and the Americas. In Roman times, wool, linen and leather clothed the European population: the cotton of India was a curiosity that only naturalists had heard of, and silk, imported along the Silk Road from China, was an extravagant luxury. The use of flax fibre in the manufacturing of cloth in northern Europe dates back to Neolithic times.
Cloth was produced in the home, and the excess woven cloth was sold to merchants called clothiers who visited the village with their trains of pack-horses. Some of the cloth was made into clothes for people living in the same area and a large amount of cloth was exported.
The process of making cloth depends slightly on the fiber being used, but there are three main steps: preparation of fibers for spinning, spinning, and weaving or knitting. The preparation of the fibers differs the most depending on the fiber used. Flax requires retting and dressing, while wool requires carding and washing. The spinning and weaving processes are very similar between fibers though.
Spinning evolved from twisting the fibers by hand, to use of a drop spindle, to a spinning wheel. Spindles or parts of them have been found in very, very old archaeological sites; they may represent one of the earliest pieces of technology available to humankind. was invented in India between 500 and 1000 AD[1] It reached Europe via the Middle East in the European Middle Ages.
Weaving, done on a loom has been around for as long as spinning. There are some indications that weaving was already known in the Palaeolithic. An indistinct textile impression has been found at Pavlov, Moravia. Neolithic textiles are well known from finds in pile dwellings in Switzerland. One extant fragment from the Neolithic was found in Fayum at a site which dates to about 5000 BCE. There are many different types of looms, from a simple loom that dates back to the Vikings, to the standard floor loom.
MACHINES
About Us
We create an opportunities (subhead Area)
We are up front about our prices and practical about our time as well as yours. We have made the process of getting online easy to understand and as free as possible by working with any kind of budget. We work unswervingly with our clients and are accessible by phone and email seven days a week. We value your business and want you to enjoy your website, rather than fear a charge for effortless updates. Our target is to build up an ingenious, proficient and ground-breaking presence for your company on the World Wide Web, bringing the product and the core value of your company and services and marketing or social message to the world. We are up front about our prices and practical about our time as well as yours. We have made the process of getting online easy to understand and as free as possible by working with any kind of budget. We work unswervingly with our clients and are accessible by phone and email seven days a week. We value your business and want you to enjoy your website, rather than fear a charge for effortless updates. Our target is to build up an ingenious, proficient and ground-breaking presence for your company on the World Wide Web, bringing the product and the core value of your company and services and marketing or social message to the world.
We create an opportunities (subhead Area)
STENTERS
Stenters being a major energy consumer in a textile mill offers opportunities for energy conservation.
Features of Advanced Stenters
Advanced stenters with special features are now available.
Some of the features are highlighted below:
1. Padding mangle
Before entering the stenter, mechanical squeezing of
fabric is done to remove moisture. This decreases the
thermal load on the stenter. Efficient padding mangle
with large diameter rollers provide even squeeze across
the width of the fabric. The speed of the padding mangle
is synchronised with the speed of the stenter.
2. Weft straightener
Fabric straightening equipment is integrated in the stenter
entry for reliable correction of skew or bow distortions
before gripping or pinning-on of the fabric – a great
advantage with tension-sensitive knit fabrics. The
combined bow/skew straightening unit comprises two
bow rollers with two downstream skew straightening
rollers. Separately driven rollers permit adaptation to
the requisite fabric tension.
3. Overfeeding
The overfeed assemblies permit reliable pinning-on of
even the most delicate fabrics.
The selvedge uncurlers or edge spreaders feed the
fabric to the overfeed assemblies directly from behind,
for uniform pinning on.
Adjustment of the mechanical overfeed input is possible
from –15% to +40%. In special cases, this can
be increased to give a higher rate of shrinkage.
The edge tension can be adjusted for each side
separately.
4. Edge gumming and trimming
The selvedge trimmers cut precisely and reliably with
a minimum loss of fabric, even at high speeds. Unpinning
of tension-sensitive fabrics takes place without stretching
the edges.
The trimmed selvedges are extracted from the machine
by powerful injection blowers.
5. Fabric edge heating
Infra-red heated hot air dryers are provided directly
in front of the first drying chamber to dry the gummed
fabric edges. This ensures that the fabric edges are
not damper than the rest of the fabric, permitting
an increase in the production speed.
6. Moisture control
Control systems are provided to measure and control
the moisture on the fabric leaving the stenter. Moisture
level is continuously compared with a pre-set value
and accordingly the stenter speed is regulated,
automatically.
Encon Aspects in Stenter
The following aspects need to be incorporated in the
new stenters for achieving energy efficiency.
✦ The mangle expression of the stenter should be normally
ensured around 60-80%, 60% for normal finish and
80% for certain add-on finishes.
✦ Vacuum extractor may be employed in stenters, for
improved moisture removal or to replace the mangle.
✦ Utilisation of full width of the stenter should be ensured
to avoid wastage of energy, otherwise the specific
heat consumption in the case of narrow width will
be higher. It is recommended to utilise atleast 75-
80% of the width of the stenter, to optimise on
energy.
✦ The stenters should be equipped with specially designed
heat transfer system and nozzles. This should ensure
that the hot air is circulated more number of times
than the conventional stenters and maximum moisture
is removed before exhaust.
✦ Heat recovery systems should be installed to extract
heat from outgoing vapours and to pre-heat the input
air.
✦ Thermic fluid heating/steam heating can be used in
stenters depending on temperature requirements. If
steam is used 100% condensate recovery should be
ensured. Condensate quantity can be as high as 0.25
TPH per chamber. Flash steam recovery system may
also be considered. The flash steam may be used
1 Fabric entry
2 Entry zone with entry stands, entry chain rails
3 Compact straightening unit
4 Overfeed and shrinking unit
5 Monitoring panel with controls
6 Selvedge gumming
7 Selvedge dryer
8 Steamer
9 Fan motors
10 Lint screens
11 Heating
12 F-air circulation system
13 Air cushion nozzles
14 Conveyor chain
15 Cooling zone
16 Exit stands
17 Plaiter
18 Insulation
jiggar machine
jigger machines which are been specially manufactured with electrical drive, and are been meant for scouring, bleaching & dyeing applications in the textile mill.
Technical Features
* Suitable for woven/knit fabric
* Useful fabric width: 1200mm - 3200mm
* Max.batch dia.: 1100mm (Others on request)
* Fabric speed adjustable from 11 to 110 mtrs/min, constant for the entire batch.
* Fabric tension adjustable from 10 to 60 Kgs, constant for the entire batch.
* The trough is built in stainless steel AISI 316 with liquor ratio 1:2.
* Doors with glass windows are pneumatically lifted.
* Indirect heating through external heat exchanger. Maximum temp is 98°C
* To prevent dripping of condensate, heating coils above hood
* Dye Liquor circulation is through pump.
* Shifting device (Optional)
* Automatic rocking device to avoid unbalancing of batches while machine is stopped
* Dye liquor filter outside the machine with large filtering surface.
* Additional dosing tank with pump for dyeing
* Fabric take off through winch.
We create an opportunities (subhead Area)
We are up front about our prices and practical about our time as well as yours. We have made the process of getting online easy to understand and as free as possible by working with any kind of budget. We work unswervingly with our clients and are accessible by phone and email seven days a week. We value your business and want you to enjoy your website, rather than fear a charge for effortless updates. Our target is to build up an ingenious, proficient and ground-breaking presence for your company on the World Wide Web, bringing the product and the core value of your company and services and marketing or social message to the world. We are up front about our prices and practical about our time as well as yours. We have made the process of getting online easy to understand and as free as possible by working with any kind of budget. We work unswervingly with our clients and are accessible by phone and email seven days a week. We value your business and want you to enjoy your website, rather than fear a charge for effortless updates. Our target is to build up an ingenious, proficient and ground-breaking presence for your company on the World Wide Web, bringing the product and the core value of your company and services and marketing or social message to the world.
We create an opportunities (subhead Area)
STENTERS
Stenters being a major energy consumer in a textile mill offers opportunities for energy conservation.
Features of Advanced Stenters
Advanced stenters with special features are now available.
Some of the features are highlighted below:
1. Padding mangle
Before entering the stenter, mechanical squeezing of
fabric is done to remove moisture. This decreases the
thermal load on the stenter. Efficient padding mangle
with large diameter rollers provide even squeeze across
the width of the fabric. The speed of the padding mangle
is synchronised with the speed of the stenter.
2. Weft straightener
Fabric straightening equipment is integrated in the stenter
entry for reliable correction of skew or bow distortions
before gripping or pinning-on of the fabric – a great
advantage with tension-sensitive knit fabrics. The
combined bow/skew straightening unit comprises two
bow rollers with two downstream skew straightening
rollers. Separately driven rollers permit adaptation to
the requisite fabric tension.
3. Overfeeding
The overfeed assemblies permit reliable pinning-on of
even the most delicate fabrics.
The selvedge uncurlers or edge spreaders feed the
fabric to the overfeed assemblies directly from behind,
for uniform pinning on.
Adjustment of the mechanical overfeed input is possible
from –15% to +40%. In special cases, this can
be increased to give a higher rate of shrinkage.
The edge tension can be adjusted for each side
separately.
4. Edge gumming and trimming
The selvedge trimmers cut precisely and reliably with
a minimum loss of fabric, even at high speeds. Unpinning
of tension-sensitive fabrics takes place without stretching
the edges.
The trimmed selvedges are extracted from the machine
by powerful injection blowers.
5. Fabric edge heating
Infra-red heated hot air dryers are provided directly
in front of the first drying chamber to dry the gummed
fabric edges. This ensures that the fabric edges are
not damper than the rest of the fabric, permitting
an increase in the production speed.
6. Moisture control
Control systems are provided to measure and control
the moisture on the fabric leaving the stenter. Moisture
level is continuously compared with a pre-set value
and accordingly the stenter speed is regulated,
automatically.
Encon Aspects in Stenter
The following aspects need to be incorporated in the
new stenters for achieving energy efficiency.
✦ The mangle expression of the stenter should be normally
ensured around 60-80%, 60% for normal finish and
80% for certain add-on finishes.
✦ Vacuum extractor may be employed in stenters, for
improved moisture removal or to replace the mangle.
✦ Utilisation of full width of the stenter should be ensured
to avoid wastage of energy, otherwise the specific
heat consumption in the case of narrow width will
be higher. It is recommended to utilise atleast 75-
80% of the width of the stenter, to optimise on
energy.
✦ The stenters should be equipped with specially designed
heat transfer system and nozzles. This should ensure
that the hot air is circulated more number of times
than the conventional stenters and maximum moisture
is removed before exhaust.
✦ Heat recovery systems should be installed to extract
heat from outgoing vapours and to pre-heat the input
air.
✦ Thermic fluid heating/steam heating can be used in
stenters depending on temperature requirements. If
steam is used 100% condensate recovery should be
ensured. Condensate quantity can be as high as 0.25
TPH per chamber. Flash steam recovery system may
also be considered. The flash steam may be used
1 Fabric entry
2 Entry zone with entry stands, entry chain rails
3 Compact straightening unit
4 Overfeed and shrinking unit
5 Monitoring panel with controls
6 Selvedge gumming
7 Selvedge dryer
8 Steamer
9 Fan motors
10 Lint screens
11 Heating
12 F-air circulation system
13 Air cushion nozzles
14 Conveyor chain
15 Cooling zone
16 Exit stands
17 Plaiter
18 Insulation
jiggar machine
jigger machines which are been specially manufactured with electrical drive, and are been meant for scouring, bleaching & dyeing applications in the textile mill.
Technical Features
* Suitable for woven/knit fabric
* Useful fabric width: 1200mm - 3200mm
* Max.batch dia.: 1100mm (Others on request)
* Fabric speed adjustable from 11 to 110 mtrs/min, constant for the entire batch.
* Fabric tension adjustable from 10 to 60 Kgs, constant for the entire batch.
* The trough is built in stainless steel AISI 316 with liquor ratio 1:2.
* Doors with glass windows are pneumatically lifted.
* Indirect heating through external heat exchanger. Maximum temp is 98°C
* To prevent dripping of condensate, heating coils above hood
* Dye Liquor circulation is through pump.
* Shifting device (Optional)
* Automatic rocking device to avoid unbalancing of batches while machine is stopped
* Dye liquor filter outside the machine with large filtering surface.
* Additional dosing tank with pump for dyeing
* Fabric take off through winch.
PRINTING METHODS
PRINTING
SPECIFICATIONS
Textile printing is the process of applying colour to fabric in definite patterns or designs. In properly printed fabrics the colour is bonded with the fiber, so as to resist washing and friction. Textile printing is related to dyeing but, whereas in dyeing proper the whole fabric is uniformly covered with one colour, in printing one or more colours are applied to it in certain parts only, and in sharply defined patterns.
In printing, wooden blocks, stencils, engraved plates, rollers, or silkscreens are used to place colours on the fabric. Colourants used in printing contain dyes thickened to prevent the colour from spreading by capillary attraction beyond the limits of the pattern or design.
Traditional textile printing techniques may be broadly categorised into four styles:
*
Direct printing, in which colourants containing dyes, thickeners, and the mordants or substances necessary for fixing the colour on the cloth are printed in the desired pattern.
*
The printing of a mordant in the desired pattern prior to dyeing cloth; the color adheres only where the mordant was printed.
*
Resist dyeing, in which a wax or other substance is printed onto fabric which is subsequently dyed. The waxed areas do not accept the dye, leaving uncoloured patterns against a coloured ground.
*
Discharge printing, in which a bleaching agent is printed onto previously dyed fabrics to remove some or all of the colour.
PRINTING
ORIGIN
Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and probably originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220, and from Egypt to the 4th century.Textile printing was known in Europe, via the Islamic world, from about the 12th century, and widely used. However the European dyes tended to run, which restricted the use of printed patterns. Fairly large and ambitious designs were printed for decorative purposes such as wall-hangings and lectern-cloths, where this was less of a problem as they did not need washing. When paper became common, the technology was rapidly used on that for woodcut prints. Superior cloth was also imported from Islamic countries, but this was much more expensive.The Incas of Peru, Chile and Mexico also practiced textile printing previous to the Spanish Invasion in 1519; but, owing to the imperfect character of their records before that date, it is impossible to say whether they discovered the art for themselves, or, in some way, learned its principles from the Asiatics.
METHODS OF PRINTING
There are six distinct methods at present in use for producing coloured patterns on cloth:
1. Hand block printing.
2. Perrotine or block printing by machine.
3. Engraved plate printing.
4. Engraved roller printing.
5. Stenciling, which although not really a printing process may be classed here as one.
6. Screen printing
SPECIFICATIONS
Textile printing is the process of applying colour to fabric in definite patterns or designs. In properly printed fabrics the colour is bonded with the fiber, so as to resist washing and friction. Textile printing is related to dyeing but, whereas in dyeing proper the whole fabric is uniformly covered with one colour, in printing one or more colours are applied to it in certain parts only, and in sharply defined patterns.
In printing, wooden blocks, stencils, engraved plates, rollers, or silkscreens are used to place colours on the fabric. Colourants used in printing contain dyes thickened to prevent the colour from spreading by capillary attraction beyond the limits of the pattern or design.
Traditional textile printing techniques may be broadly categorised into four styles:
*
Direct printing, in which colourants containing dyes, thickeners, and the mordants or substances necessary for fixing the colour on the cloth are printed in the desired pattern.
*
The printing of a mordant in the desired pattern prior to dyeing cloth; the color adheres only where the mordant was printed.
*
Resist dyeing, in which a wax or other substance is printed onto fabric which is subsequently dyed. The waxed areas do not accept the dye, leaving uncoloured patterns against a coloured ground.
*
Discharge printing, in which a bleaching agent is printed onto previously dyed fabrics to remove some or all of the colour.
PRINTING
ORIGIN
Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and probably originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220, and from Egypt to the 4th century.Textile printing was known in Europe, via the Islamic world, from about the 12th century, and widely used. However the European dyes tended to run, which restricted the use of printed patterns. Fairly large and ambitious designs were printed for decorative purposes such as wall-hangings and lectern-cloths, where this was less of a problem as they did not need washing. When paper became common, the technology was rapidly used on that for woodcut prints. Superior cloth was also imported from Islamic countries, but this was much more expensive.The Incas of Peru, Chile and Mexico also practiced textile printing previous to the Spanish Invasion in 1519; but, owing to the imperfect character of their records before that date, it is impossible to say whether they discovered the art for themselves, or, in some way, learned its principles from the Asiatics.
METHODS OF PRINTING
There are six distinct methods at present in use for producing coloured patterns on cloth:
1. Hand block printing.
2. Perrotine or block printing by machine.
3. Engraved plate printing.
4. Engraved roller printing.
5. Stenciling, which although not really a printing process may be classed here as one.
6. Screen printing
DYEING
DYEING
DYEING OVERVIEW
Dyeing is the process of imparting colours to a textile material in loose fibre, yarn, cloth or garment form by treatment with a dye.A dye can generally be described as a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and may require a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber.Both dyes and pigments appear to be colored because they absorb some wavelengths of light preferentially. In contrast with a dye, a pigmentgenerally is insoluble, and has no affinity for the substrate. Some dyes can be precipitated with an inert salt to produce a lake pigment, and based on the salt used they could be aluminum lake, calcium lake or barium lake pigments.Textile dyeing is concerned with organic (that is, carbon-based) compounds that can be dissolved in appropriate solvents, usually water. The dyes in solution are absorbed on the surface of the textile fibre then pass into the interior of the material by a process called diffusion.The process of transferring the dye from solution to the fibre is called exhaustion, with 100% exhaustion meaning that there is no dye left in the dyebath solution. An important property of a dyeing is its levelness, in other words when the same depth of colour can be seen all over the material. Dye molecules are attracted by physical forces at the molecular level to the textile. The amount of this attraction is known as 'substantivity': the higher the substantivity the greater the attraction of the dye for the fibre.Another factor is good penetration, when the dye has penetrated deeply into the structure of the fibre, colouring it from the outer surface of the fibre to its interior
IT'S TYPES
NATURAL DYES
Natural dyes have now been almost entirely superseded by the synthetic products, except for a few specialised uses. Logwood, the only natural dye still in large-scale use, is however used for dyeing not only silk and wool, but also secondary cellulose acetate and nylon.Indigo was the main natural dye used to yield blue shades; its fastness to light was outstanding when compared with other natural dyes. As a result it achieved particular importance. Even so, the bacterial fermentation process used for its extraction from either Indigofera or woad plants was highly unpleasant Indigo blue always keeps its stunning hue even if it grows paler, for this reason the only original colour of the Bayeux tapestry that remains true is the indigo blue of its woad-dyed wools.The dark blue indigo dye has been known for over 4000 years. When the Romans attacked England, they found that the country was populated by people who tattooed and painted themselves with indigo. The name the Romans gave to these people, Briton, means 'painted men'.
SYNTHETIC DYES
The first human-made (synthetic) organic dye, mauveine, was discovered by William Henry Perkin in 1856.Synthetic dyes quickly replaced the traditional natural dyes. They cost less, they offered a vast range of new colors, and they imparted better properties upon the dyed materials.Dyes are now classified according to how they are used in the dyeing processThe first man-made fibre to achieve commercial significance was viscose rayon, in the early 1900s. This is chemically similar to cotton (in other words it is a cellulosic fibre) and so the dyes already available for cotton were used on viscose rayon. At the time these were mainly direct, vat, azoic and sulphur dyes, but since the 1960s fibre-reactive dyes have come to be widely used on all cellulosic fibres.
Acid dyes are water-soluble anionic dyes that are applied to fibers such as silk, wool, nylon and modified acrylic fibers using neutral to acid dyebaths. Attachment to the fiber is attributed, at least partly, to salt formation between anionic groups in the dyes and cationic groups in the fiber
Basic dyes are water-soluble cationic dyes that are mainly applied to acrylic fibers, but find some use for wool and silk. Usually acetic acid is added to the dyebath to help the uptake of the dye onto the fiber.
Direct or substantive dyeing is normally carried out in a neutral or slightly alkaline dyebath, at or near boiling point, with the addition of either sodium chloride (NaCl) or sodium sulfate(Na2SO4). Direct dyes are used on cotton, paper, leather, wool, silk and nylon
Vat dyes are essentially insoluble in water and incapable of dyeing fibres directly. However, reduction in alkaline liquor produces the water soluble alkali metal salt of the dye, which, in this leuco form, has an affinity for the textile fibre.
Reactive dyes utilize a chromophore attached to a substituent that is capable of directly reacting with the fibre substrate. The covalent bonds that attach reactive dye to natural fibers make them among the most permanent of dyes. "Cold" reactive dyes, such as Procion MX, Cibacron F, and Drimarene K, are very easy to use because the dye can be applied at room temperature.
DYEING OVERVIEW
Dyeing is the process of imparting colours to a textile material in loose fibre, yarn, cloth or garment form by treatment with a dye.A dye can generally be described as a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and may require a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber.Both dyes and pigments appear to be colored because they absorb some wavelengths of light preferentially. In contrast with a dye, a pigmentgenerally is insoluble, and has no affinity for the substrate. Some dyes can be precipitated with an inert salt to produce a lake pigment, and based on the salt used they could be aluminum lake, calcium lake or barium lake pigments.Textile dyeing is concerned with organic (that is, carbon-based) compounds that can be dissolved in appropriate solvents, usually water. The dyes in solution are absorbed on the surface of the textile fibre then pass into the interior of the material by a process called diffusion.The process of transferring the dye from solution to the fibre is called exhaustion, with 100% exhaustion meaning that there is no dye left in the dyebath solution. An important property of a dyeing is its levelness, in other words when the same depth of colour can be seen all over the material. Dye molecules are attracted by physical forces at the molecular level to the textile. The amount of this attraction is known as 'substantivity': the higher the substantivity the greater the attraction of the dye for the fibre.Another factor is good penetration, when the dye has penetrated deeply into the structure of the fibre, colouring it from the outer surface of the fibre to its interior
IT'S TYPES
NATURAL DYES
Natural dyes have now been almost entirely superseded by the synthetic products, except for a few specialised uses. Logwood, the only natural dye still in large-scale use, is however used for dyeing not only silk and wool, but also secondary cellulose acetate and nylon.Indigo was the main natural dye used to yield blue shades; its fastness to light was outstanding when compared with other natural dyes. As a result it achieved particular importance. Even so, the bacterial fermentation process used for its extraction from either Indigofera or woad plants was highly unpleasant Indigo blue always keeps its stunning hue even if it grows paler, for this reason the only original colour of the Bayeux tapestry that remains true is the indigo blue of its woad-dyed wools.The dark blue indigo dye has been known for over 4000 years. When the Romans attacked England, they found that the country was populated by people who tattooed and painted themselves with indigo. The name the Romans gave to these people, Briton, means 'painted men'.
SYNTHETIC DYES
The first human-made (synthetic) organic dye, mauveine, was discovered by William Henry Perkin in 1856.Synthetic dyes quickly replaced the traditional natural dyes. They cost less, they offered a vast range of new colors, and they imparted better properties upon the dyed materials.Dyes are now classified according to how they are used in the dyeing processThe first man-made fibre to achieve commercial significance was viscose rayon, in the early 1900s. This is chemically similar to cotton (in other words it is a cellulosic fibre) and so the dyes already available for cotton were used on viscose rayon. At the time these were mainly direct, vat, azoic and sulphur dyes, but since the 1960s fibre-reactive dyes have come to be widely used on all cellulosic fibres.
Acid dyes are water-soluble anionic dyes that are applied to fibers such as silk, wool, nylon and modified acrylic fibers using neutral to acid dyebaths. Attachment to the fiber is attributed, at least partly, to salt formation between anionic groups in the dyes and cationic groups in the fiber
Basic dyes are water-soluble cationic dyes that are mainly applied to acrylic fibers, but find some use for wool and silk. Usually acetic acid is added to the dyebath to help the uptake of the dye onto the fiber.
Direct or substantive dyeing is normally carried out in a neutral or slightly alkaline dyebath, at or near boiling point, with the addition of either sodium chloride (NaCl) or sodium sulfate(Na2SO4). Direct dyes are used on cotton, paper, leather, wool, silk and nylon
Vat dyes are essentially insoluble in water and incapable of dyeing fibres directly. However, reduction in alkaline liquor produces the water soluble alkali metal salt of the dye, which, in this leuco form, has an affinity for the textile fibre.
Reactive dyes utilize a chromophore attached to a substituent that is capable of directly reacting with the fibre substrate. The covalent bonds that attach reactive dye to natural fibers make them among the most permanent of dyes. "Cold" reactive dyes, such as Procion MX, Cibacron F, and Drimarene K, are very easy to use because the dye can be applied at room temperature.
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