Archive of Swatches in the RISD Museum

Looking to Historical Textiles for Clues

Cisele velvet at Bevilacqua in Venice, Italy

Jacquard pattern cards

Creel set up for velvet warp

Cutting tool for velvet

Warp setup for velvet weaving

Progress in weaving a cisele velvet

Punched jacquard pattern cards

Illustrations of historical velvet weaving rods and techniques.

Velvet Rods

The stacking of the rods to create the velvet pile. The steel rods create the loop or curly velvet. The brass rods are stacked directly on top of the steel rods and have a fine groove at the top. The blade tool pictured on the right aligns with the groove in the brass rod to create the cut pile.