john wrote:
Thanks Vernon for the information.
If I have the width of a half without the border, then I can work out the threads/inch.
How about in the borders? Or are they somewhat "ad libitum?
The wefts (picks?) per inch or cm is fine. They are often double threads? If you have them per cm I can easily convert.
You are a gem. Take care of yourself because a lot of priceless information resides in you.
I am also attaching a pua with the white outer border.
vernonkeditjolly wrote:
john wrote:
Vernon - A wonderful pua and it is great to get all this information. As I mentioned in our emails, I have a pua with an outermost white border also. I will post it when I get back to my own computer.
Yours looks like the "ceremonial palm" pattern?
Could you post when it was woven and can you also give more particulars about it, such as the warp and weft counts as well as the size? I would like to add that information to a list I have been keeping for statistical purposes.
Much appreciated and please keep them coming.
Dear John
I think I showed this blanket in the other thread when we were comparing ceremonial poles. It's called the Lemba Bumbun and I would place it squarely in the Classical Period (1900s to 1950s) and of a Layar provenance. I can't be exact with the year, though.
Its use and significance is directly related to the Bird Festival (Gawai Burong), the most prestigious festival of the Saribas Iban. (I shall have to write THAT article!)
I'll need to measure it later when I get home.
Warp count wise, it's
nyeratus in Iban weaving terminology, meaning a hundred and nine widths. One width equals 18 strands of warp threads. Multiply that by 109 and you have your warp count. Weft count to the inch or the centimetre?
Vernon
Dear John
First, let me address your queries.
If I have the width of a half without the border, then I can work out the threads/inch.
How about in the borders? Or are they somewhat "ad libitum?
The wefts (picks?) per inch or cm is fine. They are often double threads? If you have them per cm I can easily convert.
The borders are always 'ad libitum'. No strict rules define the width of borders.
Weft are often double threaded, sometimes triple, for strength, and also depending on the size of the threads. Very fine chinese threads are sometimes quadrupled. I have seen a single thread weft of quite thick handspun cotton.
I promise I shall measure it tonight when I get home.
Now, on to your delicious white bordered cloth.
1. I think your blanket could be 'related' to the one I attached above. They have the exact arrangement of selvedge colours. Though this could always be a coincidence. But even the style of the coils are similar, and quite tellingly, the dye technique. To the untrained eye, all reds are the same. But each family would have their particular secret methods of arriving at very unique shades of reds. Could they have come from the same longhouse and family?
2. The main design is of the
ra'ang baya or jaws of the crocodile. You might see six crocodiles on the cloth but the way an Iban sees it, there is just one crocodile with an opened jaw devouring a enemy. In its belly is the headless torso of the enemy. The crocodile is surrounded by omen birds shrieking the crocodile's victory over its foes. Next to the crocodile is a warrior dressed with plumes of feathers on its head (whom I shall call the protagonist).
This is a pictorial narrative of the cult of head-taking. It could be a wife or mother re-telling a story (hence, a pictorial family history of the protagonist) or it could also be a wife encouraging her husband (the protagonist) to acts of bravery. The crocodile represents the spirit helper of the warrior. All successful warriors and war leaders had spirit helpers who aided them in warfare.
Provenance is Layar, of the Classical Period. Though head-taking had already diminshed during this period with the coming of the White Rajahs and their English laws, head-taking values were still fresh in the psyche of the Iban weaver. It was a time of change and instability. Head-taking was recently outlawed at that time but no one then knew for certain if it would be totally eradicated from the Iban way of life. So the Iban weaver was still very much influenced by the head-hunting paradigm.
John, never part with this piece. It is one of the few narrative-type pieces that actually tell a story using symbols and motifs. (Although Traude Gavin argues that symbols do not exist in Iban weaving taxonomy, I beg to differ. There are some designs and motifs that are recurringly used universally to represent and mean a particular thing. The jaw symbol is one of them and is used in the 'pictorial language' of Iban weavers.)
Vernon