by Heather Luke | Jun 24, 2015
Dark grey to black, it is very hard wearing and used for upholstering stools or ottomans, skins stitched into floor rugs or outdoor cushions. ...
by Heather Luke | Jun 24, 2015
Also known as mermaid’s gossamer, it is an ancient and extremely rare, fine cloth with a golden gloss woven from the anchoring filaments–the byssus–of bi-valve mollusks such as the pen shell, Pinna nobilis cetacea. It is valued for being both...
by Heather Luke | Jun 24, 2015
The name for Gossypium barbadense cotton when grown exclusively in the West Indies (see Egyptian and pima). Sea Island cotton sounds as though it should be romantic and sensuous, and it is indeed just that. With one of the longest and smoothest fibres, its superior...
by Heather Luke | Jun 24, 2015
A marine flowering plant that yields a vegetal fibre used to make furniture, rugs and carpets. China is one of the largest commercial cultivators, growing crops in paddy fields that are flooded with seawater in the growing season. The dried seagrasses are twisted into...
by Heather Luke | Jun 24, 2015
A step in preparing, or dressing, textile fibres (flax, cotton, hemp, silk, wooL) for spinning by beating them to remove impurities. This process was previously done by hand with sticks, a scutching knife or a small iron scraper. Since the 19thC, it is now done by...
