posted on October 20, 2000 10:24:11 AM
Looks like damask or a jacquard weave to me. Most true barkcloth is cotton with fats threads of varying size that are slubbed and textured and the designs are printed onto the fabric. (Vat dyed is often on the selvedge somewhere. The designs look to be woven into the fabric as opposed to printed or screened. This looks to be a synthetic or blend of some sort and the colors and design motif look to be at least the 1960's, a little to late for true barkcloth. May not be barkcloth but looks like nice upholstery type fabric.
posted on October 20, 2000 11:24:35 AM
Thanks smw - it looks 60's to me to, so if bark cloth predates, well that settles that. A search on bark cloth brings up such a pile I did not know what was authentic or otherwise.
I am still not sure how to list though. The woman I bought these pieces from specifically referred them as "drapes". Here is a pic of the back of the fabric, perhaps it will show definitively the type so I can list properly.
Thanks!
posted on October 20, 2000 01:21:24 PM
Definitely not barkcloth, I could just kiss you though for checking first, and not going ahead and listing it as barkcloth. I would say at least 75% of the auctions I look at that state barkcloth in the title, are not barkcloth, sometimes not even close. I agree that your drapes are jacquard, perhaps even an upholstry weight material. They are striking, I think they will do well at auction. So Austin Powers looking, LOL! good luck!
posted on October 20, 2000 02:07:40 PM
"Jacquard" is a pretty generic term, and refers to any sort of woven fabric "manufactured by using the Jacquard attachment on the loom. This attachment provides versatility in designs and permits individual control of each of the warp yarns. Thus, fabrics of almost any type or complexity can be made." To compliate things further, there are also jaquard knits - so let's get a little more specific.
The two most popular decorator-quality fabrics woven on the jacquard loom are brocade and damask.
Damask is defined as "a firm lustrous fabric (as of linen, cotton, silk, or rayon) made with flat patterns in a satin weave on a plain-woven ground". This is most commonly found in table linens and 18th-century-style upholstery fabric (think Chippendale). Here's some damask tablecloths (scary colors, but it helps to see the woven-in designs): http://www.sanjayind.com/images/Sun2.jpg
Brocade has a "rich, heavy, elaborate design effect, sometimes with coloured or metallic threads making the design usually against a satin weave background. This makes the figures stand out. the figures in brocade are rather loose, while in damask the figure threads are actually bound into the material. The pattern may be satin on a twill ground or twill on a satin ground." Here's some brocades: http://www.globalsources.com/pbg/asm/owa/8804442146BIG
What you've got, IOW, is probably best referred to as brocade. (Definitions from Webster's and the from the Internet Centre for Canadian Fashion and Design.
Barkcloth, OTOH, is printed cotton - the design is printed on, not woven in (although there is a peculiar texture to the weave), and the fabric is comparatively coarse. Here's a (very large) pic of some barkcloth, to give you an idea of the texture: http://members.aol.com/ama55/80EQR.jpg
posted on October 20, 2000 02:13:29 PMHCQ Hey thanks! I can't believe I have some barkcloth! I've had it for years (though I am not ready to part with it) but when I saw your picture of barkcloth, it looked just like mine! Wow! Cool!
Thanks from me too! Even though I worked at a fabric store part-time while I was in college, I seem to have forgotten most of what I learned. Well, I haven't forgotten how much I dreaded crafters who wanted me to cut only 1/8 yard of Fun (fake) Fur!
posted on October 21, 2000 04:47:31 AMmapledr1216, do you bring back memories! Not sure if you and I are the same age but when I managed a fabric store back in the late '70s, the big craft project was a wreath made of braided "tubes" of calico filled with batting. You needed 1/8 yard of calico to make each tube. We'd have a $1/yard sale on calico and customers would come up to the cutting table with two dozen bolts of fabric, from which they of course wanted 1/8 yard each - that's right, a whopping 12.5 cents. So for $3 in sales we'd spend more than half an hour just cutting. It was awful, and makes ANY ebay nightmare pale in comparision. These days, whenever I buy 1/4 yard, I sort of cringe my way up to the salesperson....
posted on October 21, 2000 03:51:52 PM
Oh, HCQ, I remember those calico sales well. And as if all the cutting wasn't bad enough, how about redraping all the bolts and putting them away - color-coordinated, of course?!?
posted on October 21, 2000 04:09:09 PM
HCQ - I've never worked at a fabric store, but I sure empathize with those poor clerks - I'm a hobby quilter and I almost never buy less than a full yard when the fabric store is having one of the 'madness' sales -
OTHOh -I have enough stash fabric for my lifetime, and probably through a few more generations.
I do appreciate the primer on fabric types - I have a few drapery bolts of fabric that I bought at auction over 15 years ago - I may pull them out - I knew I didn't like the feel of the weave, but they looked to be cotton, so I saved them just in case. I know two of them are solid - I am assuming that there can be solid barkcloths, right?
I have some other drapery fabrics that aren't cottons - feel kind of like rayon, or maybe a rayon/polyester blend - but they are woven - any idea what these might be? I can upload a pic if you think you might be able to identify it.
posted on October 21, 2000 05:15:44 PM
Are there solid barkcloths? Absolutely! They don't sell as well as the prints, of course, and mostly what NOS (new, old stock) seems to be listed is either green or tan. But if you market it right - as a way to "stretch" some expensive print yardage - you can do well.
Of COURSE post a pic of the other stuff! Always glad to help in exchange for a peek at somebody's stash!
You sound like a fabric clerk's dream (also the dream of any lucky quilter who gets what's left of your stash!). This will be totally OT to anybody who doesn't quilt, but I recall some quilting expert saying on a TV show that she always buys "at least 2 yards" of any fabric (nonquilters - right now I've got about 50 fabrics in my severely-depleted stash, and calico can sell for anything between $3-16/yard). She's obviously got (a) a self-replenishing checking account and (b) a very large workroom/storage area. Jealous? Moi??
posted on October 21, 2000 06:36:30 PM
I have a few more questions about Bark Cloth if anyone can help set me straight?
1. Is Bark Cloth always Cotton?
2. Is it a heavier type of material?
3. Was it primarily used to make curtains?
4. Is there any way to identify Bark Cloth absolutely, or is it a generic term for printed cotton that has a bark-like texture?
5. When was it made?
6. Why is it so collectable now?
Sorry for all these questions but just today I came across some old store stock from the late 60's early 70's. There are rolls upon rolls of material (some of which I would guess to be Bark Cloth just by the look and feel of it.) This place is jammed packed to the rafters with unsold drapery fabric and polyester stretchy stuff, etc. I would love to invest in some of it but don't know anything about material, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
posted on October 21, 2000 07:35:41 PM
1. Is Bark Cloth always Cotton?
Yes.
2. Is it a heavier type of material?
Yes. Not stiff - "beefy", like the difference between a gas-station lavatory paper towel and a terry bathrobe from the Ritz-Carlton.
3. Was it primarily used to make curtains?
Yes, and slipcovers.
4. Is there any way to identify Bark Cloth absolutely, or is it a generic term for printed cotton that has a bark-like texture?
It's like art, or pornography. You know it when you see it Go to a good vintage shop and fondle some barkcloth. Your DNA will be altered so that thereafter you'll recognize it at 50 yards. Some of us have even developed "Barkcloth Clairvoyance" and can find it at the bottom of boxes that appear full of nothing but sleazy 1960's sheer panels and pilly poly-cotton ("pilly poly"? Time for bed) bedsheets. I am not joking, and any other barkclothpig worth of the name will attest to this phenomenon.
5. When was it made?
From ABOUT the late '30s to ABOUT the late '50s. As a general rule, older=better. Most collectible are the serpentine late Deco designs of the late '30s-early '40s.
6. Why is it so collectable now?
Because it's anywhere from 40-60 years old, is hard to find, is (like most old textiles) just great quality fabric, and the prints and colors are waaaaay cool in eclectic settings.
As to your textile cache - I would run fast in the opposite direction from anything synthetic, unless you plan on holding onto it for several decades as an investment or it's an exceptionally wacky Eames-era "boomerang" design in really marketable colors. You just don't get the "hand" and color saturation in synthetics that you do in natural fibers. (Anyway, synthetics give me the heebies.)
lol...I think we should hit some fabric shops together - non-fabricaholic friends are always laughing at me when they see me feeling all the fabrics I come across - I can't help it - I *have* to feel it!
The two fabrics that I can't identify are surely synthetic - they have that feel. I got them from a place that makes quilted bedspreads and matching drapes, etc for commercial uses. They sell their *remnants* for $10 a box - and most of it is greater than 3 yard pieces - lots of brushed cottons (which I love) and brocades. I've been experimenting using the brocades in quilting - I like the results, but it makes it a little more difficult in finding the right combos - because of the weight factor - I don't mix material weights in my quilts.
These were in the bottom of the box - I like the colors, but I really don't believe that I'll ever use them - so they either get sold or given to someone - can't bring myself to throw them away.
I apologize for the size of these pics, but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible.
posted on October 22, 2000 02:57:31 PM
Hmm....Both look like cotton duck to me, maybe with a tad of poly thrown in for wrinkle-resistance. At least from the scan, they seem to be too beefy and crisp to contain rayon (which creases and "fuzzes" so badly it's not usually made up into decor fabric anyway).
Have you done a burn test? What sort of ash/residue is left?
goldensands - if they're that hideous, they just might sell!
