Brocade

What is brocade?

Brocade is fabric woven with silk, gold or silver threads, where one warp is used for the weaving, and up to six wefts for ornamentation.
Brocade was known in Damascus since the eleventh century, using cotton threads, then, gradually, silk threads replaced them.

Manufacturing

Brocade is of two kinds :
a- Natural
b- Artificial

A) Natural brocade
The threads used for this kind are natural local.

• Natural threads processing :transferring the hanks into threads, then doubling the thread twice, three times, four times...etc. twisting these threads into thick strong one, and dyeing.
  Usually, the warp’s threads twist 400 or 500 times, and the wefts threads less than 250 times.
• Sketching the desired drawings on transparent papers with the required measures.
• ranscribing the sketches to a graphics papers, painted with the desired colors.
  Perforation processing begins with defining the threads number in the warp, which are generally 7200 to 8100 in 90 cm- the warp’s/fabric width.
  And the wefts number in each 1 cm, which are vary from 60 to 110 according to the chosen drawing. Now perforation processing implement on cardboard, each one square opposites one hole on the cardboard, and from 1 to 4 warp’s threads one pass through each square.
  The perforation machine punches each cardboard linearly, which are the warp threads, and crossly, which are wefts threads. The cardboard install over the machine, the needles inter the cardboard holes.
• Start weaving.
  Brocade could be of various drawings such as:

  Love Brides ( also known as Queen Elizabeth) - of 3 colours.
  Small Cashmere - of 3 colours.
  Big cashmere - of 3 colours.
  Roses -of 3 colours.
  Jasmine - of 3 colours.
  Hunting Trip - of 5 or 7 colours.
  Cherry - of 5 colours.
  Nut with dot - of 4 colours.
  Nut without dot - of 3 colours.
  Soft - of 3 colours.
  Arabesque - of 5 colours.
  Sindibad - of 5, 7, colours.
  Indian rose- of 3 colours.
  Eleventh of 4, 5 colours.
  Small Pop (most desirable in European countries) - of 5colours.
  Big Pop of 5,7 coloures.
  Ties, formal dresses for ladies, and mostly furniture can be made out of Brocade
  fabrics.

B) Artificial
Threads could be of vegetal silk(imported from Italy, mexico..), or polyester, or satin..etc.
The warp could be natural local silk, and the weft could be of satin, or both could be of polyester, or both vegetal.. different material are possible as desired.
Wallpaper, furniture, and so on, could be made of this kind.
Machines as well as manuals are used for its weaving.
Same drawings could be done, but the used cardboard, and the perforation way differ. Only three colours are possible in artificial Brocade.
While 1m of the natural brocade costs 1500 - 3000 SP , 1m of the artificial costs 300- 1000SP.