Posted by Filiberto Boncompagni on 08-30-2006 02:46 AM:

Flat weave Wagireh

Dear all,

Wagirehs were used also for kilims. Here is an example from Sabahi’s book (pages 59-59) showing a Senneh kilim, beginning of 20th.



The bunch of flowers around the medallion are the so-called “gol farangh” or roses of France, imitated from European models.
Regards,

Filiberto

Posted by R._John_Howe on 08-31-2006 11:48 AM:

Southeast Asian Sampler

Dear folks -

Turkotek tries to take a pretty steady non-commercial stance but every once in awhile we encounter a situation that suggests that at least a partial breaking of our usual rule in this area is in order.

Flatwoven samplers seem less frequent and when I contacted Marla Mallett inviting her to participate in this salon she responded saying that she is currently in Turkey with very limited internet access and will say more when she returns in a few days.

In our brief conversation, she indicated that she currently has a southeast Asian sampler up on her site. We have made a studied decision to show it to you.

It is this piece:



Note: I replaced the link to a page on Marla's site with a link to the image itself, on our server, since the page will disappear from her site sooner or later, and we want the image to be in this message when it's archived.
Steve Price

Marla said that it is for the purpose of preserving designs.

We need to restrict most conversation about this piece, but felt that it was useful for you to see it.

Regards,

R. John Howe

Posted by Steve Price on 08-31-2006 01:04 PM:

Hi John

Marla's comment, that it is for the purpose of preserving designs, seems odd to me. Textiles including these designs are fairly abundant, so it seems unlikely that the designs need to be preserved by creating samplers that include them. I know she's out of range at the moment, but I hope she will comment on this when she returns.

Regards

Steve Price

Posted by R. John Howe on 08-31-2006 05:19 PM:

Steve -

I made the morning's post from another location without looking at what Marla actually said in her email to me.

Turns out it's a little different than what I attributed to her.

Her own words were:

"...It's a sampler of brocade designs for weaver's reference."

Sorry if this made a lot of difference.

Regards,

R. John Howe

Posted by Steve Price on 08-31-2006 05:57 PM:

Hi John

Sure. It makes sense this way; that's one of the two main functions of wagireh (one is for the client to look at and make selections, the other is for the weaver's reference as she works or plans).

Thanks

Steve Price

Posted by Deb_McClintock on 09-04-2006 08:00 AM:

Thai or Lao sampler

The sampler picece posted looks like one I saw in Thailand that was produced by one of the Queen's workshops at Goldsmith College to preserve patterns. Both in Thailand and Laos there are many symbols that belonged to different groups and geographical regions. With the advent of easy travel those symbols have been carried by photos and material to different regions and weavers have picked up the patterns to interpret themselves. When I traveled up north near the Sam Neau I met many textile vendors that were bringing in stored pattern devices and materials to the weavers. The weavers reproduced what the vendor gave them and he brought them back to the main market in Vientiane.

I studied in Laos with silk weavers and many of them have smaller samplers like this with their symbols. When questioned about the source they came from their families and from other source textiles. Both the Thai and the Lao are working to preserve their heritage pieces and the
associated symbols within them.