Decorative Packaging

A tassel is a finishing feature in fabric decoration. The tassel is a universal ornament that is seen in varying versions in many cultures around the globe. They are used in many different ways from home decor,equine formal tack, and ceremonial uses and can vary from delicately simple to intricately elaborate.

The word “tassel” comes from the Latin “tassau” which meant a clasp (as for the neck of a garment).

Ceremonial wear

Tassels are also found on mortarboards and at the end of honor cords during university graduation ceremonies and possibly upon the shoes of the graduates at the ceremony. Near the conclusion of the graduation ceremony the tassel that hangs from the graduate’s mortarboard is moved from the right to the left. Typically the entire graduating class does this in unison.

History and use 

In the Western World tassels were originally a series of windings of thread or string around a suspending string until the desired curvature was attained. Decades later, turned wooden moulds, which were either covered in simple wrappings or much more elaborate coverings called “satinings”, were used. This involved an intricate binding of bands of filament silk vertically around the mould by means of an internal “lacing” in the bore of the mould.

The French exported their very artistic work, and at such low prices that no other nation developed a mature “trimmings” industry. Tassels and their associated forms changed style throughout the years, from the small and casual of Renaissance designs, through the medium sizes and more staid designs of the Empire period, and to the Victorian Era with the largest and most elaborate. Some antique designs are returning today from the European and American artisans who may charge a thousand dollars for a single hand-made tassel.

Tassels (also called tufts) were traditionally worn by Oxford and Cambridge University undergraduates on their caps (hence a slang word – tassel for an undergraduate), those wearing gold tassels were titled sons of the peers who had a right of vote in the House of Lords.

Creation

A tassel is made by binding plaited or otherwise gathered threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which the tassel is hung, and which may have loose, dangling threads at the other end. Tassels are normally decorative elements, and as such one often finds them attached, usually along the bottom hem, to garments, curtains, or other hangings.

A tassel is primarily an ornament, and was at first the casual termination of a cord to prevent unraveling with a knot. Tassels, pompons, and rosettes are point ornaments; the others are linear ornaments. The parts of a tassel are basically, from top to bottom:

Making a tassel from yarn

• Suspending cord;
• Its body, which is usually made up of one or more moulds;
• A skirt of fringe or other ornaments.

Many of the items you may need to create your own version of this idea can be found on our website by clicking on the link in my post.