Glossary

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  • See drawloom.
  • A warp that is not a circular warp.
  • See carpet.
  • See bast and linen.
  • Untwisted silk with a glossy and attractive appearance, generally used for supplementary weft decoration or embroidery.
  • See ground weave.
  • A type of South American weaving in which both the weft and warp edges loop around and form continuous, uncut selvedges, as opposed to two-selvedged cloths (with selvedges on the weft borders only) produced by most weavers.
  • A loom with a rigid frame around it.
  • Any sheer textile with an open structure is often called gauze, but in the sense used in this book, gauze refers to a specific type of weave that involves the crossing and intercrossing of the warps. Typically, gauze is derived from plain weave. The warp crossings create small openings in the ground weave, and patterns can be made by juxtaposing the ground weave and the gauze areas

  • Sacred double ikat cotton textile woven only in Tenganan Pageringsingan, Bali. The geringsing is considered the most magical and powerful of all Balinese fabrics and is highly valued for ritual use. The geringsing is used by the nobility of Bali during important ceremonial rites, such as tooth-filing, for funerals and as part of the offerings made to the gods. The cloth is also used to treat people in times of sickness, when a small fragment of the cloth is sometimes removed and burned during a curative rite. In Balinese gering refers to illness or evil coming from the sea to the south of Bali or from Nusa Penida which lies off the coast, the realm of a powerful spirit associated with cholera and other epidemics, and sing means without.

  • Gold leaf is added to different types of fabric to create a luxury object for ceremonial occasions. The technique is widely known in Indonesia as prada (or pinarada), and sometimes as telepok. In this royal textile it is applied to a hand-drawn cotton batik. In other instances it embellishes plain fabric, tie-dyed and stitch-dyed silks, Indian trade textiles and even ikat cloth. The gold is attached to the smooth surface of the cloth with a liquid adhesive, often a fish-glue. The glue patterns are first hand-drawn or stamped onto the cloth with wooden blocks, and then the fine gold leaf or gold dust is applied, adhering only to the gluework design. Unlike most Indonesian textile techniques, gold-leaf prada was the work of men.

  • The warps and wefts that make up the basic structure of a textile, considered in isolation from any patterning elements that may be present. The ground weave may be a plain weave, twill, or a satin structure. Synonym: foundation weave.
  • A heddle that raises or lowers the warps needed to make the ground weave of a textile.
  • A leash, or a set of leashes attached to warps on a pattern loom.
  • A set of string loops (leashes) attached to warps, used for opening a shed for the insertion of weft. A simple heddle consists of a stick with loops of thread that can open one type of shed. Complex pattern heddles used on drawlooms can encode many shed openings.
  • A single loop of a heddle, attached to a warp and used for lifting it up for weft insertion.
  • (Cannabis sativa) marijuana plant from which hemp fiber can be extracted for making textiles.

  • The distinctive look of an ikat cloth is achieved by tying and dyeing patterns onto the threads before they are placed onto the loom and woven.

  • Cloth made in India for trade and sale to other lands. The largest category consists of cotton cloths with stamped and resist-dyed motifs.

  • A dye containing the coloring agent indigotin, which produces a blue color. Indigotin is found in the leaves of several species of plants native to and utilized in different parts of the world. Indigotin was first synthesized in the late-19th century.