India is a land where every corner is evident with the

Research Paper Asian Journal of Home Science December, 2011 Volume 6 Issue 2 :240-245 Designing of rugs with paper folding and cutting motifs using screen printing SIMAR PRABH KAUR AND HEMA BISHT See end of the paper for authors affiliations Correspondence to: SIMAR PRABH KAUR Department of Clothing and Textiles, Govt. Home Science College, CHANDIGARH (U.T.) INDIA simarprabhkaur@gmail.com ABSTRACT The present study was aimed to know the origin and history of rug and screen printing, creating 30 rug designs and weaving and printing of selected rug. Most preferred designs were taken for designing of rugs. Different colour combinations were made following the colour forecast for fall/ winter 2011/12 and evaluation was done. 30 designs of rugs were created with the help of computer software Coral Draw and Adobe Photoshop. Designs were evaluated and the most preferred design was selected for weaving and printing. Pre-testing of the sample to check the colour-fastness to washing and crocking was done in laboratory. The printed rug was shown to leading shopkeepers of Chandigarh and Panchkula to study the market acceptability. The responses were very encouraging, overwhelming and positive and it was appreciated by everyone. KEY WORDS : Designing, Evaluation, Weaving, Printing, Market acceptability How to cite this paper: Kaur, Simar Prabh and Bisht, Hema (2011). Designing of rugs with paper folding and cutting motifs using screen printing. Asian J. Home Sci., 6 (2) : 240-245. Article chronicle: Received: 22.08.2011; Revised: 30.09.2011; Accepted: 15.11.2011 India is a land where every corner is evident with the greatness of art and craft. It is a land that reflects a love for colour, an eye for details and form and the innately artistic personality of the people of India. Craft is an expression of the human spirit in material form, which gives delight to mankind. Of all the art-craft of India hand spun and hand woven textiles are probably the oldest (Mehta, 1960; Hatanaka, 1993). In woven textile craft, one of the famous craft is rug or durrie weaving handicraft. Woven rugs are made by interweaving weft and warp. A rug usually comes in two varieties, one that is used on the bed instead of mattress or below the thin cotton mattress and the other which is used as a floor covering. The former variety, smaller in sizes, is made on a pit-loom while the later is made on an elementary loom called adda. Rugs are usually woven in India with either cotton or woolen yarns In today s fast changing fashion rugs are also coming in various types with new techniques and designs, to suit the rapidly growing need of the market. An attempt has been made to make new type of rug for the Indian local market. One such type of rug is the screen printed rug. It is originally made by printing the motifs or designs on the surface of the woven rugs with the help of screens. The art of rug making can be given a new face using paper folding and cutting motifs on them with the help of screen printing. A paper folding and cutting motif is an art used by Chinese people. These people used to cut animals, flowers and figures in the paper with a pairs of scissors or a knife mainly to decorate their doors and windows. These motifs have special significance at festivals and on holidays as it is believed that they bring good luck so here an attempt has been made to create unique patterns using paper folding and cutting motifs for rug designing. Limitations: Only cotton yarns were used for rug weaving. The size of rug was limited to 3 feet x 5 feet. Most preferred design was woven and printed. A great numbers of studies have been done related to present study. Researchers got inspired after studying these research works and moulded their inspiration to create designs. The related studies are as follows: Jain (1993) did a study on chindi durries of Fatehpur Sikri, with a view to study the origin and development of chindi durries, its raw material type of motifs and colours used. The study was also undertaken to know the annual turnover and export potential of chindi durries. Sohal (1994) conducted a study regarding the evaluation of indigenous method of screen printing using pigment dye and rapid fast colour on cotton fabric, Shivani (2008) did a study on the designing of dining sheets using foil printing inspired from Persian motifs. The aim of the study was to know the Persian motifs and creating 30 designs for dining sheets by combining them with the help of CAD. Kalia (2008) did a study on designing of ladies Kurta

SIMAR PRABH KAUR AND HEMA BISHT inspired from Hawaiian motifs using stencil printing. The aim of the study was to modify the motifs into different shapes and create designs for ladies Kurta using stencil printing. These motifs were then artistically combined with fabric to form new styles in Kurtas along with delicacy, decoration yet comfortable to wear. Aim and objectives of the study are as: to study the origin and history of rug and screen printing, to create 30 designs of rugs with the combination of checks and plaids and paper folding and cutting motifs, to select most appropriate designs of rug for printing, to screen print the selected design in the selected colour combination, to test the colour fastness of the printed rug and to find the market acceptability of the printed rug. RESEARCH METHODS The present study was conducted to use the screen printing with paper folding and cutting motifs to make designs suitable for rugs. Various issues of textile magazines like Textile Trend, Indian Textiles Journals, Clothesline has been read and material related to screen printing has been sorted out of reference. Google search engine has been used to visit var ious websiteswww.whatisscreenprinting.com, www.area-rug-tips.com etc. survey method was adopted to collect information regarding yarns used for weaving, colours and pigments used for screen printing. Survey metssshod was also adopted to check the market acceptability of screen printed rugs from 20 shopkeepers of Chandigarh and Panchkula dealing in furnishing material. Evaluation of yarns, colour combination and designs were done by ten experts from the faculty of Home Science college Chandigarh, 10 students of masters in clothing and textiles and 10 of Bachelor in Fashion designing because of their knowledge of textile designing as well as good aesthetic sense. The data were then analyzed out of the recorded responses. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The main aim of the study was designing of rugs with paper folding and cutting motifs using screen printing. 30 designs were developed using paper folding and cutting motifs and checks and plaids. Selection of motifs: For designing of rugs, motifs were picked from a research done on Creation of various design through Paper folding and cutting techniques for textile printing. For this, the selected motifs were made by the investigator with paper using the paper folding and cutting techniques. Table 1 : Selection of colour combination on the basis of ranks given by judges Sr. Marks out Colours Ranks No. of 300 1. Colour combination no.1 65 3 2. Colour combination no.2 37 9 3. Colour combination no.3 57 6 4. Colour combination no.4 60 4 5. Colour combination no.5 59 5 6. Colour combination no.6 86 1 7. Colour combination no.7 34 10 8. Colour combination no.8 45 7 9. Colour combination no.9 69 2 10. Colour combination no.10 38 8 Table 2 : Evaluation of design on the basis of ranks given by the judges Design no Marks out of 900 Ranks 2 534 7 4 529 9 5 560 3 6 554 4 7 433 21 8 579 2 12 537 6 16 532 8 22 545 5 26 523 10 27 611 1 Table 3 : Result of colour-fastness to washing Sr. No. Colour change Staining 1. 5 5 2. 5 5 3. 5 5 4. 5 5 5. 5 5 Table 4: Result of colour-fastness to crocking Sr. Dry crocking Wet crocking No. Colour change Staining Colour change Staining 1. 5 5 3 2 2. 5 5 3 2 3. 5 5 3/4 2/3 4. 5 5 3 2 5. 5 5 3/4 2/3 After that investigators scanned the motifs by using input device A-4 size flat bed scanner with their corresponding motifs numbers. Asian J. Home Sci. Dec., 2011 Vol. 6 Issue 2 241

DESIGNING OF RUGS WITH PAPER FOLDING & CUTTING MOTIFS USING SCREEN PRINTING Motif No. 1 Motif No. 2 Motif No. 3 Motif No. 4 Motif No. 5 Motif No. 6 Motif No. 7 Motif No. 8 Motif No. 9 Motif No. 10 Fig. 1: Paper cutting motifs with its sub-part Asian J. Home Sci. Dec., 2011 Vol. 6 Issue 2 242

SIMAR PRABH KAUR AND HEMA BISHT Table 5: Costing of the printed Rug Sr. Particulars No. 1. Dyed cotton yarns required for one rug of size 3 feet x 5 feet (1800gm) 2. Printed material required for one rug of size 3 feet x 5 feet (binder, fixer, emulsifier etc.) Cost in rupees 180 3. Labour charges 65 Total 295 Selection of colours: For selection of colours for rugs designing colour forcast for fall/winter 2011/12 was referred. Ten colour combinations were made following the colour forecast. These colour combination were evaluated by ten experts from the Faculty of Clothing and Textiles, Govt. Home Science College who had the knowledge of textile designing for the selection of one best combination. Development of 30 rug designs: Using the paper folding and cutting motifs, 30 designs were made with the help of computer software Coral Draw and Adobe Photoshop. The selected motifs were made with paper by using paper folding and cutting techniques and then sca nned a nd sa ved on the computer s hard disk with their corresponding motifs number. This involved the following main steps: A total of 30 base designs of rugs were created (in selected colour combination) using checks and plaids in different ways with the help of computer software Coral Draw. 50 The base design made on coral drawn was exported by clicking on file to open in Photoshop. Then the scanned motifs and base image was opened in Photoshop. From the scanned motifs, the required area of the motif was selected by using the magic tool and coloured with the help of colour bucket. By using move tools, it was transferred on to the base design. Sizes of the motifs were adjusted according to the base design sub part of the cutout design and more than two cutout designs were used. The created designs were saved in new file. 30 designs were created by combining the base design and scanned motifs. Evaluation of design: The 30 rug designs were then evaluated by a panel of judges who had the knowledge of textile designing to select the best design. Results of colour-fastness: The pretesting of the sample to check colour fastness to washing and crocking was done in laboratory. The degree of color change and staining were evaluated against grey scale. The printed samples showed good result during washing and dry crocking but poor fastness (in staining) during wet crocking. Costing of the printed rug: Before checking the marketability of the printed rug, the cost of the rug was estimated, after adding costs of cotton yarn, printed material and labour charges, the estimated cost of printed rug was Rs.295/- Colour forecast for Fall/Winter 2011-2012 Colour combinations according to colour forecast for the selection of colours for Rugs designing Fig. 2: Selection of colour combination on the basis of ranks given by judges Asian J. Home Sci. Dec., 2011 Vol. 6 Issue 2 243

DESIGNING OF RUGS WITH PAPER FOLDING & CUTTING MOTIFS USING SCREEN PRINTING Market acceptability of printed rug: A market survey was conducted to see the market acceptability of the printed rug. The designing of printed rug was greatly appreciated by all the shopkeepers. They found printed rug unique and good in quality. According to the majority of the shopkeepers, the quoted price was reasonable and they found it perfect for selling. Conclusion: Man is inherently creative and seeks means to express it in his day-to-day life. Thus, all items of use become medium of expression for his creativity. In today s world it is not only the fabric that spells elegance but design or motifs also counts. The design is of basic importance in any human expression and material production as it is the design that gives identity to an object. Keeping the requirement of present consumers in mind, the designers of today are putting their talents to use, by offering a wide range of design from different sources such as nature, civilizations, architecture, sculpture etc. In the long run to meet the ever increasing demand of people, many new techniques and methods in printing are emerging in the world of textile. This rich treasure will give new shape to the textile handicraft art by making society aware of the rich heritage of our old civilization. Hence, to conclude, the execution of this study revealed that the charm of paper cutting motifs has unfolded several possibilities, paving the way to the discovery of wide range of designs. And the application of screen printing has provided a new look to the ornamentation of textiles. Significance: The study therefore reflects the fact that the real art and craft knows no confirmed bound. Art and craft always confront man with concrete facts taken from life. It is an ideal depiction of certain phenomenon from the real world. So, there is sufficient scope to prepare printed rugs at a commercial scale and sell them in the market after adding reasonable profit. Authors affiliations: HEMA BISHT, Department of Clothing and Textiles, Govt. Home Science College, CHANDIGARH (U.T.) INDIA REFERENCES Hatanaka, K. (1993). Textile art of India. Kyoto Shoin Co., Ltd. 323 pp. Fig. 3: Rug designs Asian J. Home Sci. Dec., 2011 Vol. 6 Issue 2 244

SIMAR PRABH KAUR AND HEMA BISHT Mehta, R.J. (1960). Handicraft and industrial arts of India. D.B Taraporevala Sons and Co. Private Ltd. Shivani (2008). Designing of dinning sheets using foil printing inspired from Persian motifs. Master s Thesis, Punjab University, CHANDIGARH, U.T. (India). WEBLIOGRAPHY http://www.area-rug-tips.com/history-of-rugs.html *** *********** *** Asian J. Home Sci. Dec., 2011 Vol. 6 Issue 2 245