Week 7: Polyester Filament Process and Nanjing Yunjin Brocade

  Polyester is a manufactured filament yarn.  It is mixed from acid and alcohol creating little plastic pellets.  They are then melted down and go through a grill splitting the melted substance into fine strings.  The strings are then twisted and pinned together creating the yarn.  The yarn goes through a long stretching process until it ends up on a yarn roll.  Polyester is one of the most used fibers in today's society.  It is sustainable and durable, and uses less water to clean it.  Another pro of polyester is that it is soft and lightweight.  The process of creating polyester yarns is long, but it has added many different options to our line of work.

 Manufacturing Polyester The picture on the left gives a brief diagram of the polyester yarn process.  What goes into the pellets and eventually how it comes out of the spinneret and creates the filament.

Nanjing Yunjin Brocade is an old traditional Chinese weaving method.  It is an art and even in today's society with modern inventions they still use the old jacquard loom that is run by hand.  They need to use two people on the loom at all times in order for the yarns and fibers to not intertwine and twist.  The crown dress and the ancient dragon robe is created using this technique.  They say that they can only increase 5cm a day on the brocade because of how time consuming it is and how precise and steady they have to be with their hands.  It was interesting to see that even today these the jacquard pattern cards with squares and hand paint the pattern.  

Nanjing Yunjin - China - Chinadaily.com.cn A pattern done using the Nanjing Yunjin Brocade method.

Apunts de Viatge: The craftsmanship of Nanjing Yunjin brocade An old jacquard loom done by hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNdsOraykNI

https://www.intorsa.es/en/news/5/how-is-polyester-made.html

https://www.ultraflexeurope.com/news/the-pros-cons-of-polyester/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyyQzyvJkgg

https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/craftsmanship-of-nanjing-yunjin-brocade-00200

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