Saturday, March 09, 2013

memory cloth

Last November I visited Canada's textile museum in Toronto and saw this raffia skirt from Cote d'Ivoire, Africa.
Made by Dida women, the fabric is raffia woven without a loom, dyed with plants and marked very beautifully with tied resist.
posted here so that I don't forget this very real object

13 comments:

Ms. said...

Well worth remembering.

Jennifer said...

Wow! Not a highly intelligent comment, but...well, wow!

Dolores said...

Love the patterns.

Valerianna said...

Hard for me to imagine woven raffia.. must be very small fibers? Beautiful.

mansuetude said...

It feels alive. In rhythmic motion. Lovely.

henrietta (aka ani aka zani) said...

depths and layers, opening and closing and yes, wow...

Nancy said...

Gorgeous and earthy.

Velma Bolyard said...

this is indeed something to remember. thanks for sharing it.

ArtPropelled said...

I love the earthiness.

Judy Martin said...

This from the label placed beside the item:

skirt
Africa, Cote d'Ivoire, Lakota
late 19th-20th Century
Dida
Raffia, plant roots off loom tubular oblique interlacing resist-dyed
Opeka/Webster collection T94.3016


This tubular skirt is made by Dida women, from raffia of the viana fera palm tree. The outer surface of the leaf is stripped off, and the inner layer is dried in the sun and then shredded into fires.
The set of raffia fibres - the total number can reach as many as 1500 - is tied together and attached to a vertical tree trunk, and then divided into a set of warp threads and a set of weft threads.
Working on the diagonal the maker weaves each warp thread over and under a weft thread until she has reached the end.
The patterns are achieed by means of tied resists and dyed with natural colours.
Without the size limitations of loom-wevaing, this direct interlacing process makes it possible to create magnificent large pieces of oblique interlacing.

Els said...

Love to see that ripple structure of the tieing ...

jeanne hewell-chambers said...

i enjoy imagining what each shape symbolizes . . . and maybe the shapes don't symbolize or tally or mark anything at all. but still, there are stories upon stories upon stories.

smarcoux said...

I have always been moved by this piece I have a piece in my sewing room where I am trying to reproduce the look thanks for the reminder.