Loom with a length of partly woven cloth in place. The loom consists of a long bamboo warp beam of large diameter with apertures made into its sides and with a smaller stick next to it; three laze rods, two of them flat with curved ends terminating in a point; a shed stick formed from a section of bamboo; a heddle rod with covered with a lattice of black thread, and which has come out from the heddles; a hardwood sword; and a breast beam with forked ends round which rope has been wrapped attaching it to a rod which holds the cloth in place. A backstrap panel of woven palm leaf is present, which would have been attached to the ends of the breast beam, probably with rope. The cloth and warp from which it is in the process of being woven forms a continuous loop and is striped in many colours, chiefly brown, with some parts having been tied in the ikat technique in a floral pattern. The cloth when finished would have been made up into a tubular skirt, or sarung, for a woman.
backstrap loom
Collection Information
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