TalkTextiles.com to provide online glossary

-- Home Textiles Today, 7/8/2009 9:23:00 AM

High Point, N.C. – A group of textiles experts is working on a glossary of textiles terms as an industry standard to be placed on the internet for public use.

The glossary, called TalkTextiles.com, was initiated by Jim Calhoun, project director for Miles Talbott Upholstery. Other project members include: Wesley Mancini, president and owner of Wesley Mancini Ltd.; Brenda Sewell-Bost and Karen Williams, founders of D2; Catherine Morsell, executive director, International Textile Market Assn.; Nancy Boiter Powell, associate professor, College of Textiles, North Carolina State University; Ellen Gefen, owner, Gefen Productions; and Greg Rosendale, Glen Raven Fabrics.

In addition, NCSU College of Textiles graduate Meghan McLawhorn, who is interning at International Textile Market Assn. this summer, led a group of NCSU textile students who did preliminary work on the glossary as part of the senior project in Fashion Textiles Management.

“There is a need for a Web-based, industry-endorsed, standardized glossary of textile terminology” because while there are a number of textile glossaries in print and on the internet, they are either outdated or not specific to the home furnishings community or not accessible to a broad audience, said Calhoun.

The primary goal for the TalkTextiles.com site is to provide information for consumers, retailers, manufacturers, weavers, designers, educators and others in the industry who need an accessible resource for accepted textile terms.

According to Calhoun, the glossary “will include definitions approved by industry participants, appropriate photographic examples, and possible videos. The site for the glossary might also provide links to other sites with additional related information about textiles in other industries or other uses of textiles in the home furnishings industry.”

An introductory Web page for TalkTextiles.com was launched during the recent Showtime fabric show in High Point.