The Broadloom as a Machine for the Production of Innovative Upholstery Fabric Design

Abstract

Weaving is identified as one of the ancient forms of fabric construction. It gives meaning and identity about the people as far as their beliefs, religion and traditions are concerned. Upholstery fabric designs for furniture employed in Ghana are imported and are of foreign influence. Even though these fabrics have their aesthetic and functional values, observations proved that upholstery fabric designs can be hand-woven to give meaning and identity to furniture. In view of this, the study identifies and selects suitable weave structures that can be hand-woven to satisfy furniture decoration. The study reveals the possibilities of using the broadloom to weave upholstery fabric designs. Types of Upholstery fabrics and their characteristics were reviewed based on the conceptual and theoretical framework of the study. Descriptive and studio/practice-based research methods were employed under qualitative research approach as the research design for the study. The study further presents systematic processes involved in producing design samples. The study unearths the aesthetical and functional purposes of hand weaving in upholstery fabric designs. Even though, there were merits and demerits of the woven samples, the durability of hand-woven and machine-woven fabrics for upholstery depends on the type of yarns, weave structures and most importantly the rate and exposure of the furniture. It is therefore recommended that, the skills of hand-weaving should be encouraged and further studio practice should be carried out to increase the knowledge of hand-woven fabrics in other textile applications.