Colour in woven design

150. Compounds.—As these are composed of several elementary schemes of colouring, they are generally patterns of some intricacy of composition. With only two shades it is possible to obtain varied effects in this style of woven colouring. When three or more shades are used, and several simple methods of grouping shades practised, though the weave may be of a common twill or mat description, Compound patterns may be quite elaborate in arrangement. The elaborateness of the style resultant is determined by several factors, such as the character of the types, number of the Simple Colourings combined, and the diversity of the shades employed. The simpler the schemes of colours selected, the fewer the elements of the compound, the more ordinary in cast and aspect is the pattern acquired. Still, the commonest groupings of shades, even when combined on the simplest system, form woven styles of considerable richness of composition. One example, Fig. 102, is suggestive of the characteristics of this species of textile colouring. It is the most elementary type of compound, resulting from combining Methods I. and II., supplied in Table IX., and consisting of black and white. But it is a pattern which comprises several styles of minute effects. It is divided into four rectangular spaces, A, B, C, and D: Each square is formed of a different kind of textural design. Thus, in Section A, which is composed of two threads of black and two threads of white in both warp and weft, it will be noticed there are small irregular checkings forming vertical lines; in B, where the one-and-one order of warp colouring is crossed by the two-and-two order of wefting, minute figures, or spots of white, separately surrounded with black, occur; in Section C the same figures obtain as in B, only they are inverted, owing to the warp and weft colourings meeting each other in the reverse way to what they do in B; Section D consists of small step-twill effects. So there are thus, in this pattern, four textural results so associated as to form a neat check design, which is producible in woollen, worsted, silk, and cotton yarns. It may be diminished or increased in size, and modified in various ways. For example, Checks A and C may be double the size of B and D; or several striped patterns may be acquired by using Sections C and D together and Sections A and B—the spaces of each effect being determined by the class of fabric in which the style is produced. For trouserings they must be comparatively small, but for dress textures and mantlings they may be some inches in width. In such shades and tints as are appended, both the original pattern and the modifications named may be developed:⁠—

These colourings, with the exception of No. 1, are more suitable for dress and fancy fabrics than for trousering and coating textures. They are too bright for the latter types of loom products, but are of the correct depth of colour for fancy dress and mantling fabrics.

151. Compounds composed of Three Types of Elementary Colouring.—In the above example in Compounds, only two schemes of colouring obtain; but in Fig. 103 three elementary systems of grouping shades have been combined, yielding a style rich in diversity of small types of design. The schemes of shades employed in this construction are the I., II., and IV. Methods in Class A of the Simple Colourings. They constitute, in the fabric, nine distinct effects. These must be closely examined, in order that the principles of pattern design involved in the formation of the Compound style may be understood. Commence with the three effects succeeding each other in Bracket A. First, there is a square of similar minute figuring to that noticed in C of Fig. 102; second, a rectangle of vertical stripes composed of neat markings; and third, a repetition of the effect seen in D, Fig. 102. Next, consider the types included in Bracket B. The first space here is a composition of the small checks referred to in Section A of the former pattern; this adjoins a square filled in with vertical stripes; and then follows a space of similar dimensions, and of the same species of effects, as characterizes B of the preceding style. Both the A and B series of the effects comprise two types of pattern like those composing Fig. 102, but in the C and E groups five entirely distinct types of textural work are developed. Two of these—the two vertical stripes—have been alluded to. The horizontal stripes, comprised in Bracket C have not been described. They are similar to the stripes seen in Bracket E, only they are formed across instead of lengthways of the fabric. Between the rectangular spaces of these effects there is a square of black and white plaid. It may be useful to indicate how the several effects forming this compound may be utilized on other systems than that illustrated. The space of black and white checkings may be enlarged. But it is not simply in the form of checks these sets of colourings are combinable, for they may be associated on such principles as to yield an extensive range of stripe designs. Take, for example, the series of effects included in Bracket A. These of themselves make a neat stripe, especially if choice colourings are selected. Parts D, E, and F may be varied in dimensions according to the class of texture being manufactured. About half an inch of D, an inch of E, and half an inch of F makes a useful base. In the shades and tints furnished for the preceding example—Fig. 102—this form of stripe produces attractive styles.

The group of types in B should be similarly employed as that constituting A. After B sections have been separated from the rest of the pattern they may be used thus for a dress fabric:—A band of two inches of the effect given over F, and bands of one inch in width of the two adjacent types. If the style is applied to trouserings, smaller quantities of each type should be employed, and some fancy twist yarns added to the shades forming the bulk of the pattern, to give freshness and diversity of colouring.

The series of broken or irregular types included in Bracket C may also be worked into stripes for mantlings. In woollen yarns and mellow colourings, these broad effects in bands of about an inch in width yield effective patterns. Toned browns, slates, drabs, light greys, light olives, and lavenders are appropriate colours for this kind of textiles. Mixture yarns, of which several illustrations are given below, are also applicable.

152. Results of Combining Simple Colourings.—It will be obvious from these illustrations—Figs. 102 and 103—that, by combining several schemes of Simple Colouring, patterns are obtained rich in diversity of types of textural design, though the number of shades combined may be limited. This is not usually the case in Simple Colourings. If the shades in such arrangements are not numerous, the resultant effect is invariably plain; whereas, it is obvious that in Compounds, even should one weave only be employed and two shades combined, styles full of detail and minute textural patterns are producible. They represent an economical method of developing design in woven goods, for they are neither complicated in weave structure nor colour composition.

153. Compounds and Weave Combinations compared.—Patterns of a Compound class, being composed of two or more Simple schemes of colouring, may be compared to designs resulting from combining several small weaves or crossings. Compound colourings bear the same relation to the general classes of coloured patterns, as combined weave designs bear to the effects obtainable by diversifying the systems of crossing warp and weft yarns. Thus, the former are the resultants of combining elementary schemes of colouring, and the latter the resultants of uniting elements of weaving. Moreover, the complexity of weave compounds is proportionate to the variety of weaves combined, and the class of the elementary schemes of intertexture employed. The complex arrangement and fulness of detail of Compound Colourings are determined by the number of “Simple Orders of Colouring” entering into their composition, and by the character of the methods of colouring utilized.

When constructing weave combinations, only those weaves should be used which fit with each other correctly, and which yield a fabric regular in structure; and when forming compounds, those schemes of elementary colouring should only be combined which produce a properly balanced style.

154. Utility of a Practical Knowledge of the Woven Effects of Simple Colourings.—Before attempting to combine simple methods of arranging shades, in the construction of Compound patterns, the textural results of the various elementary systems of grouping colours already described should have been ascertained, if possible, by loom experiments. For the purpose of facilitating the combination of Simple Colourings, it will be found advantageous to make a collection of the woven patterns resulting from the adoption of the Schemes given in Paragraph 149 (see Plate XXII.). The utility of such a series of woven specimens may be indicated. Supposing, for example, a pattern were required in the cassimere twill in which the two-and-two and the one-and-one schemes of colouring were to appear. Then, by consulting the woven results of these two principles of grouping yarns, some calculation could be made of the actual aspect of the pattern to be originated. This, of course, is an advantage in designing. The most effective styles are those which the designer, by the aid of his technical knowledge, has been able to partially imagine the woven effect of, when the patterns were in the theoretical form.

155. Compound Patterns Subjective to the Nature of the Fabric Manufactured.—Another factor which affects the selection of “Simple Colourings” in the construction of Compounds, is the class or description of fabric being produced. In some species of cotton and dress textures, bold and broad effects are required, necessitating the use of the larger types of elementary colourings; but in ordinary fabrics the neatest and smallest types are suitable. This may be regarded as a general rule, but the degree of colour contrast, and the fineness of the structure of the fabric, in some measure also modify the type of shade-arrangements most appropriate for any specific class of fabrics. It is chiefly a question of the size of the pattern required, which governs the dimensions of the various effects combined in its construction. So that, granting the class of fabric has been selected, and that its structure is known, then those Simple Colourings may be applied which will give a compound style of requisite textural composition, form, and size.

156. Types of Compounds.—Compounds, like Simple Colourings, may be divided into Regulars and Irregulars, which may be subdivided thus: Compounds composed of two elementary schemes of colouring, and Compounds composed of three or more elementary schemes of colouring. Each of these subdivisions includes styles of two, three, or four shades. Examples in these several classes of Compounds are supplied in the Table given below:—

Table XI.

Compound Colourings.

157. Compounds composed of Two Simple Types.—Four examples in this class of Compounds are given in Class A of the Table. Three of them have been examined—namely, Schemes I., II., and III. The I. Scheme is analyzed in Paragraph 150, the II. Scheme produces a common check pattern, and the III. Scheme the basket check. Scheme II. is used in worsted designing for both suiting and dress fabrics, and also in cotton yarns. Both this and the III. Scheme are worked in the mat or hopsack, as well as in the four- and six-end twills. These forms of pattern also obtain in stripes and checks. No great contrast of colours is needed, as they are effective in a textural sense. The difference between the effects of the two-and-two and the four-and-four, and the three-and-three and the six-and-six orders of colouring, is so pronounced as to make decided shade composition unnecessary. Colours of the same hue, but of various depths, are appropriate. Another useful type of colour compound for these schemes of grouping shades is illustrated below:⁠—

Parts A and B may be repeated two, four, or six times, according to the size of pattern required. A very mellow sort of style results from this system of colouring. The surface of the texture is one uniform tint, slightly diversified with the twist yarns, which develop the details of the pattern, due to the method of grouping the threads. This species of colouring is soft in tone and artistic in composition, being equally applicable to woollen, worsted, and cotton fabrics. In cottons, more pronounced colouring may be adopted, such shades as follow being useful: brown and slate, pink and white, and deep blue and pale lavender.

The woven effects of Scheme IV. are given in Figs. 104, 105, and 106. The weave employed in the production of these patterns is an eight-shaft twill. Whatever twill were used, providing it flushed the warp and weft equally, the general aspect of the patterns would be as here illustrated. In order to afford as clear an insight into the principles of Compound Colourings as possible, the effect of changing the weft on the pattern resultant, when the system of warping is not varied, is also shown in these examples. All the three patterns have the same arrangement of warp yarns, but in Fig. 104 the weft is white; Fig. 105, black; and in Fig. 106 it is like the warp. If the weft contrasted in hue with both the shades of warp yarns, quite a new type of effect would be acquired. Supposing, for illustration, it were blue. Such an alteration would completely change the appearance of the fabric. Neither the black nor the white stripes would be solid, but the former would be half black and half blue, and the latter half white and half blue. However the weft might be varied; the form of the pattern would remain the same—that is to say, it would always consist in the stripes (Figs. 104 and 105) of four broad lines and two narrow lines, and in the check (Fig. 106) of sixteen large and sixteen small squares.