A Praying Mantis & a Thread

This woman's sarong, is made using natural dyed cotton threads. The fine pattern on this cloth is called buna which is a supplementary technique whereby individual weft threads are wrapped around the length-wise warp threads producing a pattern. It takes up to eighteen months to complete this textile due to this time-consuming buna process. This textile is lovely on as a wall hanging or used as throw on the bed or over a couch.

The motif is called Atalae is in the form of a praying mantis or stick bug but symbolizes the path of the ancestor. Other motifs that also represent the ancestor is the frog and human figure.

Information about the makers will be supplied with each cloth.
Supplementary weft patterning and warp patterning, four panels stitched together and sewn as a tube, commercial cotton, natural dyes. Dyed and woven in Amanuban,Timor, 2024. Size 144 x 57 cm / 56.5 x 22.5 in