Brocade and Supplementary Weft Figured Structures
topic
Brocade fabrics use supplementary weft threads of metallic, silk, or coloured yarn woven over a ground fabric only at the design positions where the figure is to appear, with the supplementary weft floating on the fabric back between figure motifs and being either cut between motifs to minimise back floats or left as floats that require careful handling, with Jacquard programming raising only the warp ends within each motif boundary for each supplementary weft pick insertion.
Role
Produces the raised, richly figured surface of traditional luxury brocade through the additional supplementary thread system that creates the three-dimensional figure emerging from the fabric ground, with brocade construction representing the most technically complex category of Jacquard figured weaving from the requirement to coordinate ground fabric weaving with supplementary weft insertion at precisely the programmed positions that define each motif within the total fabric design.