Vintage Teasel Frame
by Robert McAfee 2023-12-03 17:59
Teasel frame using English Teasels to affect fabric surface texture, especially wool. Located at the Skaneateles Historical Society Creamery building https://www.skaneateleshistoricalsociety.org/ .
Fuller's Teasels historically saw wide use in textile processing, providing a natural comb for cleaning, aligning and raising the nap on fabrics, particularly wool. The product of the teasing process is called teased wool. The cultivar differs from the wild type in having stouter, somewhat recurved spines on the seed heads. The dried flower heads were attached to spindles, wheels, or cylinders, sometimes called teasel frames, to raise the nap on fabrics (that is, to tease the fibers)