Experimental Archaeology meets Textile Design: The Rediscovery of Shadow Tissues

Shadow Tissues is a Leverhulme funded Research project based in the University Of Ulster which will investigate the lost process of warp printing that was made famous in the 1920s by Turnbull and Stockdale.

Using the Turnbull and Stockdale Archive, the project aims to uncover an accurate history of shadow tissues, reclaim technical information about the warp printing process and find out how shadow tissues were produced.

The project brings together expertise from three sectors; Trish Belford, a Textile Designer, Dr Philip Sykas, a Design Historian and Paul Turnbull, Managing Director of Turnbull Prints Ltd and holder of the Turnbull Archive. Along with me a weave designer.

This blog will focus on the progress of the project, document the techniques I investigate and manage my trials and errors. My goal is to understand the fabrics physical make up through yarns, weave structures and colour.

To begin my research I am going back to basics in the form of the 19^th Century hand controlled process of resist dyeing called Ikat or Kasuri.





Winding linen on a warping mill



Tieing the ends with a plastic resist

Dyeing

Radding/Winding on/Threading/Denting

Weaving

Some samples with varying wefts and lifting