TEF Braids & Tensengral's Contribution to Lace Braiding History
1800
Tensengral Patterning has it's origins in Torchon Lace or "Beggars Lace". Torchon Lace is most often made in geometric designs. It is one of the simplest and oldest laces and is common to many lace-making regions.
Lace-making provided a livelihood for entire communities. Lace production involved the talents and skills of many, from farmers and spinners who create the yarn, artists who created the designs on paper, pattern makers who translated the designs into parchment, and lace makers who worked directly on the patterns to make the lace.
1900
The invention of the Barmen Lace-Making Machine.
The Barmen lace machine could make perfect copies of Torchon Lace. It's bobbins imitated the movements of the hand-made lace-maker. The machines took over the commercial manufacture of lace during the nineteenth century.
The spindles' movements on a Barmen machine were controlled by a punch card, similar to a player piano.
2000
USA Lace textile factories close and sell their lace-making machines to China who replace punch card controls with a computer.
2007
TEF Braids of Athol, New York brings re-engineered century old lace-making machines to USA from China and invents new fabrics products and ways to manufacture textiles sustainably.
The addition of computer aided design systems on lace-making machines forever changed the lace industry by facilitating the production of complex 3D patterned textile structures for diverse industries from automotive and aerospace to medical and sports applications.
Birdball was one of the first products TEF Braids created using re-imagined lace-making technology. Birdball showcases the capabilities of a braided open-mesh flexible composite structure that is made from linked and interlaced yarns.
2015
Development of the world’s first performance lace, zero waste bodywear by TEF Braids for @tensengral brand.