Pongee is a type of
slub-
woven
Woven fabric is any textile formed by weaving. Woven fabrics, often created on a loom, are made of many threads woven in a warp and weft. Technically, a woven fabric is any fabric made by interlacing two or more threads at right angles to one anot ...
fabric
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is no ...
, created by weaving with yarns that have been spun by varying the tightness of the yarn's
twist at various intervals. Pongee is typically made from
silk
Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...
, and results in a textured, "slubbed" appearance; pongee silks range from appearing similar to
satin
A satin weave is a type of Textile, fabric weave that produces a characteristically glossy, smooth or lustrous material, typically with a glossy top surface and a dull back; it is not durable, as it tends to snag. It is one of three fundamen ...
to appearing matte and unreflective. Though pongee is typically made out of silk, it can be woven from a variety of fabrics, such as
cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
,
linen
Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.
Linen is very strong and absorbent, and it dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. Lin ...
and
wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...
.
In the early 20th century, pongee was an important export from
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Pongee is still woven in silk by many mills across China, especially along the banks of the
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
at mills in Sichuan, Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.
Pongee varies in weight from ; lighter variants are known as Paj.
Pongee types
Pongee is created through weaving yarns that have been twisted unevenly at various points; the resulting fabric typically has horizontal "slubs" running along the
weft
In the manufacture of cloth, warp and weft are the two basic components in weaving to transform thread (yarn), thread and yarn into textile fabrics. The vertical ''warp'' yarns are held stationary in tension on a loom (frame) while the horizo ...
, where yarns increase and decrease in thickness.
Pongee fabrics vary in their weight, fibre types, weave and yarn types; though some types of pongee display large, visible slubs, others, such as , may only display minimally varying yarn thickness, resulting in a still-textured, but far more uniform, pongee fabric.
See also
*
*
*
List of Traditional Crafts of Japan
References
External links
'Oshima Tsumugi' pongee, a traditional Japanese craft
Woven fabrics
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