The Use of Composite Textile Techniques as Upholstery Fabric for Interior Furnishing

Abstract

This is an art studio Practice-based study that employed the creativity of using Ikat technique, Embroidery technique, leather material, and woven Kente fabric from cotton and rayon yarns to create the design for the production of artistic Upholstery for interior furnishing, using yarn dyeing, traditional loom, and sewing and embroidery techniques in textiles. While plain cotton and synthetic materials for Sofa production abounds in Ghana, the study found the combination of Ikat technique, embroidery, woven kente and leather as a composite material in the production of upholstery in Ghana not exploited in the Upholstery industries. Descriptive and studio/practice-based research methods were employed under the qualitative research approach as the research design for the study. The study presents systematic processes involved in the production of upholstery design for sofas.  The study proved that the medium chosen is good for upholstery design for sofas in interior furnishing. Weaving techniques were used to generate a well-defined weave structure from dyed yarns which was augmented by leather material woven in a twill structure with embroidery stitches. All the techniques combined yielded a good design for Upholstery.