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Sorry, Ruth... It IS listed as "velvet pile" in the index of TTW and there is a whole chapter devoted entirely to these tablet-woven velvet belts from Uzbekistan! It is Chapter 14, p 259 -266 in paperback edition. These belts are plainly TW as the twined warp is visible at start and finish. I have one and have examined many. Unfortunately I have found no first-hand account of how they were woven. I suggest a method in TTW which combines 4 threads per tablet for the ground warp and two thread per tablet for velvet warp. I have taught this at a class in Portland. It works perfectly well but I have no idea if it is how they were actually made. The really incredibly ingenious aspect of the structure is that where one of a pair of pile threads (on a tablet) is forming loops on the front, the other (differently-coloured) one of the pair forms loops in the back. In this way, two colour patterns can be freely woven. If the pile was only on one side of the belt, it would involve differential take-up for all the pile warps.., wound on separate braked bobbins as in a conventional velvet handloom. Having pile back and front avoids this with a stroke of genius. As Janet's book shows, another way to achieve patterned velvet without the conventional complex set-up is to tie-dye the pile warp. I have just returned one of these belts to its owner. The central area had silk pile, the borders cotton. And in some places the loops on the back of the belt had not even been cut. They had some method of completely changing the pile warps, mid-weaving, to introduce other colours. Something I have never attempted. Incidentally the beautiful rug on the page following that belt illustration is one of several things Janet borrowed from us to photo for her excellent book. "Traditional Textiles of Central Asia". Peter Collingwood No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.13/946 - Release Date: 10/08/2007 15:50 Send private reply to "peter collingwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----------------------------------------------------------- To stop receiving tabletweaving (not tabletweaving-digest), send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: unsubscribe tabletweaving. To stop receiving tabletweaving-digest, see the end of a digest.
