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June
2000
Thanks for taking the time to invest
in your art and your careers by participating in this years
Surface Design Conference, we are very glad to see you here!
Attending this year’s conference for Testfabrics,
Inc. are:
Hilary Gifford, Surface Design Artisan, Educator and Consultant
for Testfabrics, Inc.
Tom Klaas, Technical and Marketing Director for Testfabrics,
Inc.
Mandy Klaas, Marketing and Communications Associate
As most of you are probably aware, Testfabrics, Inc. has
relocated to northeastern Pennsylvania, between Wilkes Barre
and Scranton. As if this move didn’t confuse our clients
on its own, the phone companies have changed area codes
and neglected to inform callers to the previous numbers.
Our new area code is: 570, phone: 603 0432; fax: 603 0433,
email: testfabric@aol.com
We are conveniently located near interstates 81, 80, 380
and 476 and always welcome clients and visitors. We are
two hours north of Philadelphia and about three hours west
of New York City. Please give us a call ahead of time; we
make great deals for visitors!
Hilary
Gifford and Testfabrics, Inc., an ongoing story
We got to know Hilary when she was an active client buying
materials for her boutique in Martha’s Vineyard. She
continued to be a client through the years and we met again
at QSDS a few years ago. She now acts as our surface design
consultant and sells and promotes our products and services
at national and regional quilt shows. In addition, Hilary
teaches fiber art courses at the university level and will
be developing some workshops with us. We hope you get to
meet Hilary during this conference and discuss common interest
subjects.
Change
is the only constant in business!
Testfabrics, Inc. has managed to survive for over 60 years
in a continually changing textile industry. We began working
with surface design artisans almost 30 years ago and regard
your input and value it very highly. We still work with
our technical and industrial markets very closely but are
always very interested to hear what you have to say. Many
of our products and services are the result of ‘crossover’
technology. Often problems presented by one group often
have solutions or similarity to those in another group.
Several of the items discussed later in this newsletter
are the direct result of that kind of crossover.
New
Products and Services
Prepackaged
‘Quilt Pak’ and ‘Clothing Pak’
At Hilary’s suggestion, we have assembled some pre-cut
sample packages of several different fabrics approx. 18”x22”
each. These will give you a better sample size to actually
do something with in your studios. The contents are as follows:
Quilt Pak
#400, Bl. Cotton Print Cloth
#419, Bl. Merc. Cotton B’dcloth
#425, Bl. Cotton Flannel
#435, Bl. Cotton Batiste
#441, Bl. Cotton Fine Filter Cloth
#453, Bl. Merc. Combed Cotton B’dcloth, Sanforized
#480M, Bl. Merc. Cotton Filling Sateen
#495, Bl. Merc. Cotton 68x68 Print Cloth#428, Bl. Cotton
Drapery Sateen
Clothing Pak
#411, Bl. Cotton Corduroy
#420, Bl. Cotton Terry Cloth
#460. Bl. Cotton Interlock
#468W, Bl. Cotton 1x1 Rib
#447, Bl. Cotton Organdy
#448, Bl. Cotton Velveteen
#479, Bl.Cotton Warp Sateen
#266, Spun Viscose Challis
#609, Silk Habutae
#266B, Dischargeable Black Viscose Challis
Pretreated
Fabrics for Digital Dye Printing and Dye Painting
As we are so closely linked to the dye and chemical producers
and users, we try to respond to their needs for new products
and services. In the past two years, one of the most important
technological breakthroughs has been in the digital printing
area. While almost all our fabrics are suitable for printing
with pigments, printing with digital printing equipment
using dyes requires some specially treated substrates. Digital
printing equipment cannot use traditional dye print media
with thickener, soda ash and urea for reactive dyes mixed
into it, the ‘ink’ won’t pass through
the printing heads. You must ‘pre-treat’ the
substrates with the respective chemicals for that dye class.
Testfabrics, Inc. provides such ‘pre-treated’
fabrics, cotton and silk for reactive dyes, silk and nylon
for acid dyes. We will also apply the appropriate combination
to customer-supplied goods, providing the goods are prepared
for printing.
For those of you painting with dyes, these substrates will
allow you to use aqueous dye mixes and keep them without
having to use them in a set time. You would be able to reduce
the chemicals in your studios or necessary for your workshops.
Hilary has done some preliminary work with these fabrics
and will be glad to discuss that work with you.
The dye painted materials still require steaming and after
washing. We are working on providing steaming and washing
services; presently we may only be able to provide washing
off services in our Phila. facility. If you would like to
discuss this further, please contact Tom Klaas.
Vat Dyed Cotton Upholstery Cottons WITHOUT Topical Surface
Treatments
In our work with our textile chemical clients and our museum
exhibit design clients; we have brought in a line of vat
dyed cotton fabrics that have no additional treatments applied
after dyeing. Vat dyes have good light and wash fastness
qualities and can be pigment printed or painted. There are
several colors, mostly beiges and earth tones and a sulfur
black cotton twill that is also dischargeable. Color cards
are available as well as larger samples on request.
Wet
Processing Facility in Philadelphia
Testfabrics, Inc. has a working relationship with a Phila.
plant that applies flame retardant and similar finishes
to upholstery fabrics. We operate a wash box for our specialty
test materials and also have some dyeing equipment, some
installed and some waiting to be installed. Our beam-dyeing
unit handles full width lightweight fabrics (subject to
minimums) and we now have a jig for dyeing heavier full
width fabrics. We acquired some sample books for doing 40
lbs. (100 yds) of fabric and hope to have them installed
soon and operating soon. If you have an interest in custom
dyeing, please let us know and we will see what might be
possible.
As the plant is also a flame proof finish plant, should
you have material requiring such finishes for public building
code compliance, please let us know if we can be of help.
Mr.
Shawn Meeks, Laboratory Manager, Textile Chemist and Colorist
Testfabrics, Inc. maintains an internal quality control
laboratory and our new lab manager is an experienced lab
person with dye house and color matching experience. Shawn
is a 1993 graduate of North Carolina State University, with
a degree in Textile Chemistry. Should you be needing some
technical assistance or help hitting a particular shade,
he may well be able to help. We also have some small lab
scale equipment for dyeing samples.
Used
Textile Equipment Available
We have been active suppliers of both used and new textile
equipment both lab and pilot plant scale as well as production
and sample equipment. If you have a need for larger scale
equipment than you are currently using, please let us know.
Expanded
Silk Fabric Offering
We have added these silk fabrics to our inventory:
Style #617, 45” Silk Chiffon
Style #618, 45” Silk Organza
Style #2601, 45” 82/18 Rayon/Silk Velvet for burn
out
Style #2602, 45” 82/18 Rayon/Silk Satin for burn out
Peruvian
Pima Cotton, 54” wide, style #412
We are considering bringing in a Peruvian pima cotton, mercerized
broadcloth. We have some samples available and will entertain
pre-production orders. We think you will be very impressed
with the quality of this fabric.
Clean
Cotton Cutting Waste
We routinely cut up hundreds of yards of #429, bleached
combed cotton lawn for a 2”x2” test square known
as a crockmeter square. The waste from cutting is a ‘web’
of 4” square holes that might be of interest to anyone
making paper using cotton rag. Sample bags are available
and the waste would be sold by the pound. We also slit rolls
of fabric for our clients and often have leftover selvage
rolls approx. ½”-1” of rolls anywhere
from 20-100 yds. long.
SAM
Natural Dyes from India
We have a working relationship with a manufacturer of quality
natural dyes in India. They have done a terrific job in
producing these vegetable and plant colors and additional
information and color cards are available for your review.
There is a nice starter kit of the 15 colors along with
color cards and recipes and several different mordants.
Synthetic
Fiber Piece Goods for Shibori and Related Techniques
Please remember that we are producers and converters of
prepared for dyeing textile piece goods of all the major
fibers including polyester which is beginning to find its
way into many artistic endeavors such as shibori and transfer
printing. We also source goods not currently in the catalog.
Multifiber
Fabric #49, 8 Fiber Composite Warp Stripe Ribbon for Color
Cards
We produce an interesting 8 fiber fabric on our needle looms
that has 1 cm. wide warp stripes of: acetate, bleached cotton,
nylon, polyester, acrylic, spun silk, spun viscose and worsted
wool. Originally intended for use in J C Penney colorfastness
test methods, this product is extremely useful for dyers
that need to develop their own color cards for reference
and work with their clients. Samples available.
Web
Page Up and Continually Updated
In our attempt to keep pace with the technology of the day,
our web page, www.testfabrics.com is up and provides good
initial information. We will be adding news and advice of
where we will be participating in various shows and conferences.
Suggestions for additions are welcome.
Cutting
and Sewing Services
As noted above, we do a lot of cutting of fabrics. If you
are teaching a class and need material for your students,
we can quickly and easily cut 1 yd. pieces out of 100 yds.
at a reasonable cost. We will also be happy to send catalogs
for your participants. We do some basic sewing and are developing
a cottage sewing service for producing small volume, limited
edition type art to wear. If you are interested, please
let us know. Northeast Pennsylvania had a very active apparel
industry and while a lot of the businesses have left for
foreign shores, the people are still here and do great work.
Help
us HELP YOU!
Remember, we are a service provider and not the consumer
of our own goods and services, you are! Without your valuable
input, we won’t know what you need. There are no dumb
questions! We will do our best to help.
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