bands from central America

[peter collingwood]

I am no authority but these bands look very like several Bolivian bands I have. The technique is warpface plain weave double-cloth which can be done in a very clever way, only using the two sheds obtainable with a simple stick and leash loom. I describe this in Maker's Hand. This also tells of how every inch of the finite warp is used. When there is no more room for actual weaving, bunches of warp ends are braiding in a loop-manipulated way; and then these braids sewn edge to edge with a continuous thread.. The resulting fabric can be plainly seen in Guido's excellent pictures.    The bag would have been woven from both ends of the warp in turn. Then at the warp's centre where this double weave became impossible the remaining space was filled in with plain weave. This gives the patternless jumbled appearance at bottom of the bag photo.   Peter Collingwood