Indonesian weaving, patio find, and joy, it's cool!

Today brought the promised relief from heat, windows open to enjoy it

And yesterday there was an excellent online presentation about textiles from Indonesia. 

I was particularly glad they showed the simple looms these highly complex works are made on by master weavers, often members of the royal family. Where you see an inset photo, it's the weaver shown with her work.

I learned that mud dyeing, a common technique used in this area, means the river mud, an iron rich  material, is the mordant only, not,, as I had wondered, the dye. People who've been reading here will know the mordant is what enables the dye to bite into the fabric -- that's what mordant means. 

The dye material is found in the bark and inner fiber and roots of local trees. For other weavings, other dye sources.

The two funeral pictures show the dozens of textiles heaped onto the body as a mark of honor, to this day. And a line of mourners

This island was a Dutch colony until independence, and some of the earlier works show the Dutch coat of arms, now replaced with local symbols of their traditions.

And today's patio discovery, a purple butterfly bush, among the white, very welcome. 

Gary will probably want an offshoot, because he now only has white blossoms. Speaking of butterflies, I notice they're mainly interested in the zinnias, so I'll note that for future reference. Mainly white butterflies, with a single monarch recently and one dusky swallow tail. 

Happy day everyone, here's the current bouquet

Indonesian textiles Thomas Murray collection

Yesterday was a presentation, made world-wide, by collector Thomas Murray, two separate zoom casts, one for each half of the planet, more or less, on Indonesian textiles. 

These far predate the batiks we usually think of from that part of the world, many from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The designs feature boats a lot, given their island culture, and their looms are largely back strap, very portable. In one picture you also see a researcher demonstrating the supported spindle, which I liked a lot. 

Some of the fibers predate the availability of cotton, using bast and bark and silk. Mostly these are ceremonial items, hence the preservation. And there's beadwork for bead fans.  He paid tribute to the women artists, since this is largely the work of women.

He spent a lot of time on carbon dating, which I sort of skipped by, being more interested in the art and culture than scientific proofs of age.

Anyway, just browse, enjoy. The word adat in the title refers to the rules of life as reflected in textiles and other artworks.

I selected only a few of the hundreds of images flying by and tried to crop out the captioning where I could.  But you get the gist. 

A lot of the researchers are from the Netherlands, since they were the colonial invaders of Indonesia,  largely in search of spices, valuable commodities. 

I live in hopes that a lot of these wealthy white men's collections will be restored to the culture they were plundered from. 

It's fine to honor the history by this kind of presentation, and better still to give the textiles and bead artworks back.

Meanwhile, I'm tending to my little corner, stitching, knitting, trying to organize the patio a bit, but most of the outdoor work takes more strength than I have available.

Never forget Ukraine

Photo by AC