Sunday, February 25, 2007
A small enigma
It is possible that this is actually from another tribe or from the mainstream Gujarati community rather than being Rabari, despite the fact that we bought it in a Rabari village. Unfortunately, I don't know enough to be able to say with certainty! At the moment my opinion remains that this is a ceremonial carry ring for use with the copper pots that women carry on their heads when welcoming guests to the village. Or perhaps for resting a pot on a table or the ground?
The construction of this beaded ring began with the beads being threaded on a string which was then oversewn through the red fabric and into the stuffing. Inside the red fabric (as you can see in the top picture where I was so curious that I had to open up part of it...) was a roll of plain fabric. It is rolled so tightly that it is extremely hard and made the object much heavier than one expects. The inside roll is sewn together to meet in a circle and then the red fabric is whip stitched in place to cover it.
The tassels are made with 3 baby cowrie shells and cotton threads of many different colors. The circumference is: 3.5 inches across to the outsides.
The thickness is: .75 inches
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Yao Women's Pants
Amazingly the embroidery is done from the back of the fabric, a common theme in South Asian tribal embroidery. The bottoms of the legs are embroidered first in the extremely important bands of symbols that are employed in every pair of Yao trousers, anywhere from 2 to 5 rows, using weave stitch.
A close-up of the three bands of weave stitching. Originally the weave stitches would have been done in silk thread but lately cotton thread is much more widely used. Following the Iu Mien Yoa tradition, grid stitch has been used for the smaller bands of symbols within these rows.
The inside of the weave-stitch bands, also showing the hemmed cuff.
A close-up view of some of the designs of the next two rows of large colorful embroidery done with grid stitch.
The transition between the 2nd and 3rd bands of embroidery with a smaller geometric design between.
Embroidery at the very tops of the thighs. You can see the different tones of the indigo dye in the very top where the waist band has been sewn to the leg panel.
Final picture of the back side of a stitched panel where it has been sewn to the crotch fabric.