A Length of Zanshi Ori and Two Modern Plaids: Multiple Contrast

early to mid twentieth century
69" x 13", 175 cm x 33 cm

This length if composed of three separate pieces of cotton cloth which are hand stitched together.

The longest of the pieces on the bottom is a type of weaving called zanshi ori--this is hand woven cloth that has been woven from left over yarns. In this case, the warp is fixed while the weft was fed with the leftover yarns as is evidenced by the "starting and stopping" of some of the horizontally-oriented lines of color. This shows where the various leftover weft yarns are joined together to make one continuous filament.

The two cotton pieces at top are boldly colored and are in wild contrast to the bottom piece whose color is more subtle in nature.

This is a wonderfully surprising length of Japanese cotton cloth and one that holds great appeal for its color and pattern combination.

Lovely.