Original Yok Dok Technique on The Thin Mesh

Abstract

               This Article is about the original textile’s art of the supplementary warp and weft and technique, called Yok Dok (Brocade silk) is one of the most prestigious silks in Thailand, which is rarely found in generally. Formerly the Siamese older times court has employed merchant middlemen to order textiles and deliver the finished fabrics to the court for Royal family and courtier. The orders were sent with instructions, desired designs, and fabric samples. In some cases, foreign weavers created designs, the notable characteristic of the silk, such as floral patterns motifs especially the design for the Siamese court. From past to present, as in industry, the design for the royal court in the past becomes one of the key handicrafts with the interweaving of gold threads into the fabric widely used in modern society.

               This study is a qualitative research, concerning with how the Yok Dok techniques and patterns, aiming at :1) Developing the guidelines to evaluation and criticism of Thai traditional and contemporary fabric arts, 2) improve the design and weaving technique and 3) making intervention for the researcher’s individual design project.

               The results showed that the weave structure can be modified by opening and closing the warp yarn on a draw frame so, the process of design and weaving needs special weaving skill. To achieve the new artwork, a high skillful weaver has to understand the nature of conventional complex weave to make layer, so that modification for new intervention is made possible. Source of inspiration comes from Yok Dok to as the beginning point for weaver. It is completed by the expert weaving skill to make delicate material properly designed as a prototype. The method will serve as a guideline for further research.

               In summary, the researcher plans to design a series of fabric artworks based on the inspiration of Thai literature, making synthesis between original classical golden fabric weaving method of the past and modern material, gold color of modern chemical and sequence arrangement so that layers will become obvious. Thai weaving techniques will be applied to make development to ward contemporary designs. Instead of using natural fiber or conventional domestic yarns the researcher uses combinations of yarns, with modern synthetic chemical dyes, thin mesh, and plastic mesh etc. They will be integrated to make a synthesis of contemporary weaving art.