Emerging Textures: a brief history of twist
Ann Richards
Yarn twist has always been an important element in textile design,
as it has such a powerful influence on the appearance, handle and
functional properties of fabrics. Firmly twisted yarns can create
very hardwearing fabrics and this must have been a serious,
practical issue since the earliest times. However, yarn twist can also
be a major element in decorative design; such techniques have a
surprisingly long history and continue to be inspiring today.
Early Decorative Uses of Yarn Twist
Yarns can be twisted in two different directions, Z and S, and
these reflect light differently. Stripes of the different twists can be
used in warp, weft or both to create ‘shadow’ stripes and checks,
and such techniques were used as far back as the Bronze Age
(1400 – 1200 BCE). When combined with high levels of twist,
such yarns can also create textured effects, which emerge
naturally from the interplay of yarn twist and weave structure.
Fabrics exploiting such textures have been produced for
thousands of years, particularly in ancient China: a fragment of
silk from the Shang Dynasty (1600 – 1050 BCE) has an uneven
surface created by tightly twisted warps and wefts. Another piece,
about 2400 years old, already shows the alternation of Z and S
twists that has become the classic crêpe construction, still used
today, which gives an overall crinkled texture.
The ancient Egyptians may also have been aware of the
possibilities of yarn twist for creating textured effects; some of the
textiles that have been excavated include yarns that are very
highly twisted. The Egyptologist Rosalind Janssen (formerly Hall)
has described a Fifth Dynasty (2498 – 2345 BCE) dress which
revealed, during conservation, that it might have been designed
to pleat spontaneously. She also cites wall paintings of the
A banquet scene from Nebamun’s
tomb shows guests wearing
clothes with rippled pleats.
Photo: Alan Costall
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Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 247, Autumn 2013
Eighteenth Dynasty (1550 – 1290 BCE), which she believes may
represent ‘natural’ pleating. For example, the beautiful paintings
from Nebamun’s tomb, now at the British Museum, show people
wearing garments with rippled pleats, very different from the
usual representations of pleated garments in Egyptian paintings.
Unlike the Chinese, the Egyptians used only one direction of
yarn twist, S, for their woven fabrics. If high-twist1 yarns were
used with an open sett, this would have produced an effect of
irregular pleating (crepon) rather than the overall crinkled
texture of crêpe.
From such early beginnings, the fine-scale texture of the crêpe
effect and the stronger texture of crepon have continued in use
over many centuries; the elasticity of such fabrics have made
them extremely suitable for traditional garments of a very
simple cut. Although their popularity has fluctuated over the last
century as fashions in clothing have varied, crêpe and crepon
remain classic fashion fabrics, still used when fluid and flexible
effects are required.
Twentieth Century to Today
Towards the end of the twentieth century, new developments
took place in the design of naturally textured textiles. Two
different groups of people began to experiment with high-twist
yarns and, in so doing, extended the range of design to include
bolder effects than those of the traditional crêpe and crepon.
Working on an industrial scale, the Japanese designer Junichi
Arai began to use high-twist yarns in the 1970s and 1980s,
combining them with computer-controlled Jacquard weaving to
produce boldly patterned and textured fabrics for fashion
designers, such as Issey Miyake. In 1984 Arai, who has been
referred to as the best ‘textile planner’ in the world, co-founded
the NUNO Corporation with another highly imaginative
Japanese designer, Reiko Sudo. NUNO (the word means ‘fabric’
in Japanese) has become famous for innovative textile design
and a willingness to mix simple hand techniques with state-ofthe-art technology in pursuit of an idea. NUNO’s work has been
beautifully recorded in a series of books, and their website
(www.nuno.com) also provides many illustrations, together with
a history of the company.
At about the same time, a new interest in naturally textured
textiles was also developing within the handweaving community.
Anne Blinks drew attention to the disturbances produced by
overtwisted yarns, showing her samples of textured fabrics to
interested handweavers. She also coined the term ‘collapse’ (see
In Search of Collapse by Lillian Elliott), which has since become
widely used, especially as a way to refer to relatively large-scale
effects, as compared with the very fine-scale texture of
traditional crêpes. Sharon Alderman, Lillian Elliot and Mary
Frame followed up these ideas and their intriguing and
informative articles, written in the mid 1980s, brought ideas
about high-twist yarns to a wide audience of handspinners and
weavers. I was a student at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design
(Farnham) at around the time these articles were published and
they strongly influenced the whole direction of my work.
Natural Textures Come of Age
Many other spinners and weavers have since experimented with
high-twist yarns, with Lotte Dalgaard, Anne Field and Anna
Champeney being particularly active in exploring the
possibilities. So, from the context of a long history, a renewed
interest in using ‘natural’ textures as a major design element has
gradually emerged over the past thirty years. Many handweavers
have now become aware of such textural effects, usually under
the catch-all term of ‘collapse’ weave, but although this provides
a convenient shorthand it can convey a misleading impression of
uniformity in a field of design that is, in reality, very diverse. The
time seems ripe to set these developments in context, by digging
deeper into the basic principles involved. A closer look at yarn
twist shows how an apparently simple mechanism can produce a
wide variety of different textures.
The precise form of these textures varies depending on the fibre,
amount of yarn twist and sett.
These twist interactions can also create textural variations
across the fabric, if broad stripes of Z and S are used in the warp
or weft, or both. These intersect to give stripes or blocks of sametwist and opposite-twist textures. The undulating texture causes
more fabric contraction than the tracking effect, so interesting
curves can emerge from the blocks of different textures, or entire
pieces of cloth can be shaped by such variations of texture.
Stress and the Crêping Reaction
Although adding twist gives strength to yarns, it also imposes a
stress and this has the effect of making yarns unbalanced, so that
they tend to crinkle and spiral in an attempt to escape their
stressful situation. Though restrained by weave structure, these
movements can create texture within a finished cloth when it is
wetted out. The fibres absorb water and swell, imposing an
additional stress that triggers the spiralling reaction, and the
textures that are produced are generally retained as the fabric
dries. Although this sounds simple enough, a surprisingly wide
range of textures can be produced, as the inherent properties of
the fibres, the amount and direction of yarn twist, the weave
structure and sett, all come to play their part in the process.
To start with, the various natural fibres behave differently in
their responses to stress. Wool, with its wide range of qualities in
different breeds of sheep, is in itself a varied material. Different
spinning methods also contribute – soft woollen yarns, made
from fine, short, randomly arranged fibres, react differently to
stiffer worsted yarns, made from thicker longwools and with
good fibre alignment. Soft woollen yarns tend to shrink and
crinkle tightly, while stiffer worsted yarns create larger spirals
and consequently larger scale textures. Structure and sett also
make an impact, so the interplay of many apparently simple
elements produces an emergent complexity that can sometimes
be hard to anticipate. A small change may cause surprising
repercussions throughout the fabric, a textile equivalent of the
‘butterfly effect’ familiar from the scientific fields of chaos and
complexity. This sensitivity to subtle variations makes for an
exceptionally interesting area of textile design with plenty of
scope for experiment.
Twist Direction in Plain Weave
Even with plain weave, the interactions of unbalanced S and Z
yarns offer various possibilities for design. When the direction of
twist is the same for warp and weft (Z x Z or S x S), a characteristic
‘tracking’ pattern is produced, but when opposite twists are used
in warp and weft (Z x S), a very different, larger-scale pattern will
appear, forming distinct undulations in the fabric surface.
A sample of plain weave where stripes of Z
and S yarns have been used in both warp
and weft. Curves emerge from the
chequerboard of same-twist and oppositetwist textures
Photos: Ann Richards
These effects arise from using high-twist yarns in both warp and
weft, but many interesting designs can be produced when hightwist yarns are combined with lower-twist or balanced yarns –
these can usefully be thought of as ‘active’ and ‘passive’ yarns.
This may simply be a matter of using a relatively easy-to-handle
‘passive’ yarn in the warp, while the more excitable ‘active’ yarn is
used for the weft, to create crepon or crêpe effects. But ‘active’
and ‘passive’ yarns may also be combined in the weft to produce
seersucker effects or to create frilled borders for accessories such
as scarves or bracelets.
Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 247, Autumn 2013
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Both high-twist and balanced
yarns are used in a structure that
combines plain weave and floats
to create the crisp pleating in this
neckpiece
Double or multiple layer cloths also offer wide possibilities for
design. Layers with different shrinkage potential can be
combined and interwoven in various ways, giving an immense
range of textured fabrics. Combinations of double and single
cloth also offer great scope for both texture and pattern. Once
again, these fabrics often have a very different character from
the random textures of ‘collapse’ effects in plain weave.
Differential shrinkage between
layers creates a textured surface in
this double/single cloth in wool
and silk
Photos: Ann Richards
Wool and silk crêpe yarns are
played off against stiff metal
yarns to create these crepon
bracelets with frilled edges
Twist and Weave Structure
High-twist yarns in plain weave often give a rather randomly
textured effect and, although this is obviously part of the charm
of these techniques, introducing more complex weaves will open
up additional possibilities. The interplay of high-twist yarns with
various weave structures allows the creation of more carefully
ordered textures. In particular, structures that combine firmly
woven areas (which constrain the yarns) together with localised
floats (allowing shrinkage) have great potential for precisely
organised effects such as accordion pleats. Such crisply
controlled textures can be very different from the random
crinkling that many weavers have come to associate with
‘collapse’ fabrics.
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Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 247, Autumn 2013
It is also possible to vary the weave structure across or along the
cloth, changing the capacity for shrinkage, so that rectangular
pieces of fabric will change shape during wet finishing. Such
techniques can be used to give flared edges to scarves or shawls
and also to create ‘loom-to-body’ clothing that requires minimal
cutting and sewing.
allowance needs to be made for the very different character of
these new yarns. Even metal yarns, which one might expect to be
very stable, can sometimes mimic the behaviour of high-twist
yarns, creating boldly textured fabrics; Wendy Morris has made a
detailed study of these intriguing effects.
Traditional high-twist yarns and the new synthetics and
metallics were once very difficult to obtain, but they have recently
become much more readily available to handweavers, through the
efforts of the Danish Yarn Purchasing Association (www.yarn.dk)
and adventurous suppliers such as Handweavers Studio in the UK,
and Habu in the USA. So now, at the beginning of the twenty-first
century, we find ourselves in the happy situation of having the
necessary materials much more easily available than ever before,
while techniques that originated in the distant past remain as
inspirational as ever. Long may exuberant textures continue to
emerge!
1 High-twist in this context is referring to unbalanced yarns containing
residual energy, whether plied or not.
Bibliography
‘Doublecloth Loop’ scarf.
Along the length of the scarf, plain
weave is used in both layers to
create crepon textures. The border
combines single and double cloth
to create a flared edge
Photo: Ann Richards
Twist and Texture for the Future
These few examples can do no more than hint at the huge range of
effects that can be created using high-twist yarns, combined with
the simple process of soaking the finished fabric in water; the
possibilities truly are endless. Further options open up through the
use of additional techniques, such as heavy milling or woven
shibori, since these can be combined with high-twist yarns to
develop special effects. Some of the traditional techniques and
structures that have been evolved to exploit yarn twist can also be
very effectively used with the many synthetic shrinking and elastic
yarns that have been produced over the past century, though some
Alderman, Sharon (1985) Tracking the Mystery of the Crinkling Cloth,
Handwoven, Sept/Oct 1985: pp. 31 – 33.
Champeney, Anna (2009) Fun with Floats: Crinkle Scarves with Classic
Overshot, Journal WSD, 232: pp. 21 – 23.
Dalgaard, Lotte (2012): Magical Materials to Weave, North Pomfret,
Vermont: Trafalgar.
Elliott, Lillian (1983) In Search of Collapse, in Rogers, Nora and Stanley,
Martha, In Celebration of the Curious Mind, Loveland, CO:
Interweave Press.
Field, Anne (2008): Collapse Weave, London: A&C Black.
Frame, Mary (1986) Ringlets and Waves: Undulations from Overtwist,
Spin-Off, December 1986: pp. 28 – 33.
Frame, Mary (1987) Are You Ready To Collapse?, Spin-Off, March 1987:
pp. 41 – 46.
Hall, Rosalind (1986): Egyptian Textiles, Aylesbury: Shire Publications.
Hall, Rosalind (1986) ‘Crimpled’ Garments: A Mode of Dinner Dress,
Discussions in Egyptology, 5: pp. 37 – 45.
Morris, Wendy (2012) All that Glisters – Collapse Effects with Metallic
Yarns and Wires, Journal WSD, 244: pp. 6 – 9.
NUNO Corporation (1998) Fuwa Fuwa, Japan: NUNO Corporation.
NUNO Corporation (1998) Boro Boro, Japan: NUNO Corporation.
Richards, Ann (2012) Weaving Textiles That Shape Themselves,
Ramsbury: Crowood Press.
Richards, Ann (in press) Could Ancient Egyptian Textiles Have Pleated
Themselves? Experiment and Experience: Ancient Egypt in the Present,
Swansea: Swansea University.
Sutton, Ann (1992): The Textiles of Junichi Arai, Hon RDI, Journal WSD
161: pp. 14 – 15.
About the author
Ann Richards trained and worked as a biologist, but then went on to study
weaving at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design, Farnham, where she later
also taught. She works mainly with high-twist yarns, creating strongly
textured fabrics with elastic properties. Influences on her textiles include
origami, biomimetics and archaeology.
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