DESIGN, in the manufactories, expresses the figures with which the workman enriches his stuff or silk, and which he copies after some painter or eminent draughtsman, as in diaper, damask, and other flowered silk and tapestry, or the like.
In undertaking such kinds of figured stuffs, it is necessary, says M. Savary, that before the first stroke of the shuttle be made, the whole design be represented on the threads of the warp; we do not mean in colours, but with an infinite number of little packthreads, which, being disposed so as to raise the threads of the warp, let the workmen see, from time to time, what kind of silk is to be put in the eye of the shuttle for woof. This method of preparing the work is called reading the design, and reading the figure. The manner in which it is performed may be briefly described. A paper is provided, considerably broader than the stuff, and of a length proportionate to what is intended to be represented thereon. This is divided lengthwise by as many black lines as there are intended threads in the warp, and across these lines by others drawn breadthwise, which, with the former, make little equal squares; and on the paper thus squared the draughtsman designs his figures, and heightens them with colours as he sees fit. When the design is finished a workman reads it, whilst another lays it on the simplot. To read the design is to tell the person who manages the loom the number of squares or threads comprised in the space he is reading, intimating at the same time whether it is ground or figure. To put what is read on the simplot is to fasten little strings to the several packthreads which are to raise the threads named; and this is continued till the whole design is read.
Every piece being composed of several repetitions of the same design, when the whole design is drawn, the drawer, in order to begin the design afresh, has nothing to do but to raise the little strings, with slip-knots, to the
top of the simplot, which he had let down to the bottom; and this he must repeat as often as is necessary, till the whole be manufactured.
The ribbon-weavers have likewise a design, but it is far more simple than that now described. It is drawn on paper with lines and squares, representing the threads of the warp and the woof. But instead of lines, of which the figures of the former consist, these are constituted of points only, or dots, placed in certain of the little squares formed by the intersection of the lines. These points mark the threads of the warp which are to be raised, and the spaces left blank denote the threads which are to keep their situation; the rest is managed as in the former case.