All About Looks

All About Looks is a family owned design store in Lubbock, Texas. Oddly enough, the two sisters who run it are not ID majors, but they are both precious in their own right. I have to applaud the work orders they get out in a such a small space with limited workers, and I fell completely in love with their very homey and welcoming atmosphere.

This is the front of the store. They have swatches, and things everywhere. It's a little cramped, but it adds to the charm.

This couch just has different samples on it. Ironically, a lot of their customers like this look, and want an actual couch like that.

The sisters mentioned picking furniture to reupholster for you. They are very flexible with their involvement in your home projects.

This ottoman has a cork fabric top. I thought that was pretty cool.

This is the only work table that the girls have to use and sew on. Crazy stuff.

All the reupholstering is done in the back. Here are some pieces that need to get started.

Reupholstery in progress.

 Overall, the trip was fun, and I feel like I got a sneak peek of something I hope to be doing in the future.

A Trip to the Fiber and Bioplymer Research Institute

Field trips are fun, and this one was no exception, even if it was kind of early and I was sleepy. Anyway, if I am going to be working with fabric for a living I might as well know where it come from and the limitations of it, hence the trip to the Fiber and Biopolymer Research Plant.

This map is terrible, and a waste of time. Don't MapQuest this place either, it sends you to Narnia.

 

We had a Tour Guide whose name I wish I knew, but he was very nice although a little hard to understand. It's cool though, because it made me pay attention more and kept me awake. He started out with taking us to where they store their raw samples that they get.

It looked like cloud with boxes on them.

The cotton they were working with needed to be cleaned so he showed us how that process was done.

He was feeling casual

This opens the cotton up to get it ready to clean.

This it comes out through here, and moved to another machine.

This cleans out the 'trash' in the cotton.

The cotton fiber is then spun into a loose rope, which is amazingly soft, but cannot be used for anything.

They load then into drums to be moved to another room.

He was showing us the fibers stretched end to end. It was cool!

Then the fibers are spun into actual yarn or string!

I have no idea what this is. I just thought it was legiiiiit!

Then of course, as most of us know, the yarn gets put on to a loom and turned into actual fabric!!

This one was broken.

So he showed us this one instead.

Talking about warp and fill, and stuffs.

Anywho, it was a fun trip, but it was cold, and I needed some food afterwords.

A Study of Silk

            Over the years silk has been an immensely prized possession. The qualities of this fiber make it a wonderful luxury to have, and even can be associated with affluent demographics. It comes as no surprise if one takes a look at the processes that this lustrous fiber has to go through in order to become available to the market.

            Silk is a natural made fiber. An insect called the Silk Worm is responsible for the manufacturing of said fiber. The thought of a little bug making something that is so precious seems a little off putting, but the industrial world cannot create an alternative similar to this product. Each little cocoon can produce 1,00 yards of silk before the worm matures into a moth. This art is is painstaking, and the bug themselves are fed a strict diet Mulberry leaves to keep the fiber as white as possible. Although most of the silk harvested today is within a 'farm' of sorts, there are wild moth larva that produce silk as well. This is also harvested, and usually is brown in color. It is referred to a Wild Silk.

             Silk comes in a few different forms. When the silk if first produced it is coated with a stiffener called Serecin. It is natural and in this form the silk is referred to a 'raw'. It has to be boiled off in order to work with, and sometimes this takes place during the dying stage. Spun silk is referred to the scraps of the cocoon that cannot be reeled in. As mentioned earlier, there is wild silk which is always spun, and yields yarn called Tussah. Noil is the spun from 'silk waste' which is short fibers. Doupioni silk made when twin worms are in a cocoon together, and they produce a double strand of fibers. 

            Silk is a versatile fiber to work with. It dyes well, and takes color wonderfully. This is one of the reasons it is loved to much. It can blend with some synthetic fibers, like polyester and rayon. These other fibers can work well with silk since they allow the natural fiber to retain is color. Silk is often considered fragile, but it does have some strengths. It is abrasion resistant, and has been used to make parachutes in the past. Unfortunately, silk can be susceptible to fading, and isn't for high sun exposure purposes. It's high cost and and fragile composition make it unacceptable for high wear scenarios as well.

            While Silk is a wonderful fiber to use and to work with, it can be a little pricey. It has it's ups and downs, as well. While color takes to it beautifully, it's not the thing you should upholster your couch with. The process of making it is a little lengthy, but over all the fiber is one that cannot be reproduced by anything but the insect it comes from.