The cool luxurious feel of certain fabrics against your skin is something that cannot be replicated. It is very soft and smooth and simply caresses your skin.

Silk has long been a staple and exotic fabric and a symbol of pure luxury.

For thousands of years only the elite were able to afford this rare commodity. It may have been harvested by simple farmers but it wasn’t worn by them and it had a tremendous impact on the trading world.

As precious as gold and spices were, the demand for silk was even more. This creation of nature is still sought after today. Yes, the availability has increased and more people are able to wear it but pure silk is something that is still a valuable commodity.

This article will let you know about silk’s unique history and how it helped shape the world of fashion today. You may just find out something that you did not know.

When was silk first discovered?

Silks were discovered between 6000 and 3000 BC by the Chinese. The empress Xi Ling-Shi was the first to develop the silks into fabrics. But the rarity of silks meant that only the royalty had access to this precious fabric. Gradually through gifts and trade the silks made their way to various other parts of Asia.

From Asia it was a simple matter of traders taking the silk fabric with them throughout the rest of the known world. For many centuries the Emperors of China hoarded the secret of cultivating the silkmoths in captivity. There is countless recordings or digs in which silks were discovered from around the world.

What types of clothing can be made from silk?

Any type of clothing can be made from silks. The key is not using just one strand though. Spinners have to combine several strands of silk in order to make a tough enough fiber to withstand the weaving process. Fabrics that are made from very thin silks can easily tear or rip apart.

But to answer the question, you can find silken fabrics to make anything from. If you want a pair of socks…there are certainly manufacturers out there that can provide you with them.

It is more common to find silks being woven into typical clothing items such as dresses, pants or shirts. The smooth quality of the fabric combined with its luster gives it a great appeal to virtually everyone.

Who was the first person to mass produce silk?

There really is not one single person who is written down in history as the first to mass produce silks. History does credit the Chinese for holding the majority of the market even up to this day.

True mass production of silks did not come until the Industrial Revolution. Thanks to new weaving methods and machinery, more silken fabric could be produced. The Jacquard loom helped make silk embroidery easier and less expensive.

How does silk come in so many colors?

Silks are just like any other fibre that is woven. It can be dyed to any color that the manufacturer wants. There is a process though. First the fabric must be bleached to remove the natural yellow tint that comes from the raw silks. After it has been bleached out, dyes can be added in to reach the desired shade for the finished product.

Quality silks will be dyed in a way so that you do not have to worry about bleeding or color run-off. In the past when the dying process was done by hand, the colors were fairly limited with what could be dyed naturally. With today’s chemicals and varying shades of hues, a silken fabric can be transformed into a multitude of colors.

By: Michael Selvon

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Mike Selvon portal offers free articles on silk. Find out more about silk, and leave a comment at the discount silk blog.

Technorati Tags: chinese, clothing, colors, dresses, fabric, fabrics, fiber, fibre, history, natural, of, pants, pure, quality, shirts, silk, silken, silks, soft, woven

Today, screen printing is a popular tool used by companies for anything from promotional mugs to movie posters to graphic t-shirts, but its history is as rich as the pallet of colors used by modern screen printers. The inception of screen printing dates back thousands of years. Only part of the history is related to the use of silk.

By cutting shapes into banana leaves and pressing dye into the cut-out portions, early Polynesian Island natives were able to produce some of the first screen prints. This process transferred the stenciled design onto a bark cloth. This is the basic premise of screen printing – forcing dye through a stencil to create a design. Early forms of stenciling (using blowpipes to apply the colorant) were also found in the caves of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain.

At the time of the Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960 -1280), the Japanese were using stencils to produce intricate designs. In order to keep smaller, loose pieces of a stencil in place, Japanese printers used human hair as a ‘tie.’ Human hair was strong enough to secure the free parts and thin enough to allow ink to pass around them and onto the desired medium.

In the middle ages, similar stenciling was used for mass production, such as the production of the Hoyle playing card.

In the 1700s, western culture caught onto screen printing. In England, screen printing was used for wall designs, like wall paper in upper-class homes. At first, Englanders were using ‘ties,’ but intricate designs necessitated a change. Silk replaced human hair, which allowed for more intricate and uniform prints.

This is also where the name silk screen printing derived, although silk is rarely used anymore; man-made plastics or metal are the preferred materials for modern screen printers.

In 1907, Samuel Simon of Manchester, England patented the first industrial screen printing process. His process paved the way for modern screen printers, which used woven silk instead of ‘ties’ to hold the stencil in place. Detailed designs were glued to the mesh fabric.

In 1914, San Franciscan John Pilsworth, patented a multicolor screen printing process.

During World War I, from 1914-1918, screen printing was used extensively for recruiting, such as the ubiquitous ‘Uncle Sam wants you,’ posters. Screen printing was ideal for high-quality, high-volume signage. Screen printing remains a staple in promotions and advertising.

In the 1920s, screen printing was used by a number of graphic artists of the Art Deco and Art Nouveau movements. They referred to the process as serigraphy.

In the UK in the late 40s and early 50s, Francis and Dorothy Carr are sometimes attributed as the first artists to use screen printing as a fine art in its own right. In the 1960s, Pop Art was popularized by the likes of Andy Warhol, Rauschenberg and Hamilton, which furthered the movement of screen printing as an art form.

Graphic (and art) screen printing is still widely used in mass media but also in an underground do-it-yourself screen printing subculture. This is due to its low cost and ability to print on a variety of media.

Some say, however, that screen printing is a dying art, soon to be replaced with other forms of image transfer, such as modern industrial printers. I guess, we shall squeegee.

By: Donald Arson

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Donald enjoys screen printing t shirtsin his spare time. His brother is an artist and often supplies the patterns for his custom screen printing.

The Art Of Silkscreen Printing

The terms silkscreen, screen printing and serigraph all refer to the same type of process, the process of pulling ink through a screen made of porous finely woven fabric called mesh stretched over a frame of aluminium or wood.

Silkscreen Supplies

Photo Emulsion is one of the most important requirements of silkscreen printing. This supply is required for producing high quality images. It is to be applied directly to the screen. Photo Emulsion remover is another necessity. 

Technorati Tags: designs, fibre, history, inks, invention, machine, mesh, mugs, printing, screen, silk, silkscreen