Fig. 30
THREE-PLY WARP AND WEFT
A, B, C, D, E, F, Coloured warps; U, V, W, X, Y, Z, Coloured wefts
A more complicated variety of weave can be made with three sets of warp threads, each of two colours, alternately, and six wefts correspondingly coloured. This produces a fabric of three textures, which are fastened to each other at the point of interchange. If, therefore, the design should involve a large area of one colour or effect, this area is apt to be loose and baggy, covering a pocket, which is not attached to the rest of the fabric. This defect, however, can be overcome by utilising one of the warps or wefts to act as a binding thread.
As has been intimated above, modern developments of Ingrain carpets have tended in the direction of wide seamless carpets, in which respect the fabric is on the same lines as other classes of carpeting. The bulk of the trade now lies in the wide carpets, and comparatively few breadth goods are woven. The modern Art Square loom is a fine piece of mechanism, inspiring admiration with its comparatively small Jacquard, its mass of cordage, and its ingenious co-ordinated motions.
Modern developments of fabrics have also been in the direction of heavier goods and coarser pitches. Most qualities now being made contain 1,088 warp ends to the yard, in stuffer and chain combined. The yarn now used is heavier, as it has been realised that a carpet needs weight, both for the sake of wearing qualities, and in order that it may lie well on the floor.
The preliminary and final processes in the manufacture of Ingrain carpets are substantially the same, as regards winding, beaming, finishing, etc., as for other fabrics; and these have been already described. Mention may be made, however, of a warping mill for preparing the warp beams for wide carpets. The yarns are wound from bobbins fixed in a frame, in some convenient multiple of the number of ends required, on to a large reel frame or warping mill, which revolves on either a vertical or horizontal axis. This frame has a diameter of about 12 ft., so as to enable a long length of warp to be wound upon it. When the required number of ends of the desired lengths have been wound, they are unwound from the reel on to a beam, which can be fitted into the beaming machine, and detached again, so as to go into the loom. The beaming machine is adjustable to take different widths of beam.
Compared with some carpet fabrics, Ingrain must take a modest place. The effects of design and colour of which it is capable are limited; and though, in theory, the combination of three or four wefts, with as many warps of similar or different colours, gives an almost indefinite potential number of colour combinations, yet in practice these have their limits. It will be generally conceded that Ingrain carpets are most effective in simple and severe designs, using few colours. Nor can it claim to be a luxurious carpet to tread upon. Even the heaviest Ingrain lacks the resiliency, which the looped pile gives to even a cheap Brussels or Tapestry. On the other hand, it can be very artistic within its limitations; and it has the merit of being made in wide seamless carpets, and of these carpets being clean in wear and easily handled.
CHAPTER XI
DESIGN AND COLOUR
Carpet designing is a branch of Applied Art which makes exacting demands upon its adherents, requiring as it does technical knowledge to an exceptional extent. The average designer who ventures into this field, however high his artistic ability may be, is not likely to achieve a practical success, unless and until he has studied the particular capacities and limitations of carpet fabrics. For this reason, the public carpet designer is more or less of a specialist in his domain, which is rarely invaded unless by such exceptional craftsmen as the late Walter Crane or Voysey. Similarly, and because there are so many varieties of carpet fabrics, requiring special knowledge and treatment, all carpet manufacturers maintain private staffs of designers, whose business it is to produce new patterns for each season and quality in accordance with the commercial requirements. For the manufacturer has to be governed to a great extent by the tastes and inclinations of his customers, the carpet dealers, and cannot afford to be too enterprising in initiating novelties, while the carpet dealer, in his turn is, as a rule, rather a follower than a leader of the public taste. The commercial standard has, therefore, been to some extent a hampering influence upon the progress of carpet design towards perfection, but it is certainly less so than in the past. For it has been modified of recent years by a new tendency, which, however, is not one of unmixed advantage to the manufacturer.