Heritage House Kitchen Textiles Trade Heat for Color

By Cecile B. Corral -- Home Textiles Today, 3/27/2006 12:00:00 AM

New York — —

New York —Heritage House, a Chinese gift supplier of African-American-themed wares that only recently decided to add home textiles to its offerings, is coming to market with an innovative line of heat-sensor kitchen textiles.

The four-piece assortments — each including a three-finger pot mitt, a two-finger pot mitt, a hot pad and a pot holder — are equipped with a patent-pending heat-sensor chemical technology that changes the color of the product when it is exposed to heat.

“We used a chemical compound in making the product that starts it at yellow and when it approaches heat at a dangerous level — of up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit — then turns to red, and stays red until it cools down to the original state,” explained Chris Choi, vp, who joined the company a year ago to create its home textiles line. He has been designing kitchen products for the past eight years.

He added that a user could stick his/her gloved hand in the barbeque grill and hold the hot coals, “and not feel a thing.”

The products are resistant to flames, heat and steam, and can be used for both indoor and outdoor cooking.

Currently, the collection comes in red-and-gray and blue-and-gray color combinations. But Heritage House will soon expand the assortment to include other looks, including three to six printed patterns, embroidered looks, solid colors, ginghams and plaids, among others.

Each product comes with a detachable liner for easy washing-machine cleaning.

Heritage Home's home textiles line is limited to kitchen textiles right now, but Choi said there are plans to expand into other related products in the near future.