Know Your Sparkles
As connoisseurs of all things shiny know, there is a big difference between something that shines and something that sparkles. If you are choosing Christmas sparkle fabric for your visual merchandising, displays or fashion design you have to ensure the vision is understood by everyone you are working with from the people sourcing the fabric to the people selling the fabric themselves! If you have aver been ever so slightly annoyed if someone says” oh I love your sparkly top” when you know full well its a more of a liquid flat shine then you may well appreciate this blog. Send it to anyone who needs to learn their twinkle from their shine.
OK, that may have sounded a bit pedantic but knowing the difference is important when describing a fabric to someone and when ordering online. Visual merchandisers, interior designers, set designers, artists and clothing designers should all know the differences, however subtle. When creating anything from scene or a garment you often need to describe your design to someone who wont quite see the difference in their mind, until they see the real thing. Maybe this blog will help.
Terms like sparkle or twinkle refer to materials that catch the light in a multitude of places. The size of the pieces and the direction they face determines the way light reacts with them. The smaller the pieces, the finer the sparkle, so it becomes more of a twinkle. When thousands of tiny facets that all face the same direction, they work together so the fabric can become more of a fluid shine. Whereas when light hits Glitter fabric the multitude of facets face different random directions, creating more of a sparkle to the fabric rather than a pure shine.
Keeping Score
Instead of my in depth descriptions that wander on for miles, I have devised a bullet point guide and a points out of 10 guide to help out anyone choosing their sparkle fabric! This is applied to fabric we sell, but will also help with any shiny fabric you come across in life!
I have used terms such as ;
- Metallic
- Shimmer
- Sparkle
- Shine
- Wow Factor
….to help with understanding the fabric. For a good example I would say Large Display Glitter Fabric has a 10/10 sparkle and the Fine Display Glitter has a 10/10 twinkle. So scroll scroll through and like a top trumps for fabric, compare the scores….