A Length of Patched Zanshi Ori: Leftover Yarns

early twentieth century
58" x 12 1/2", 147.5 cm x 32 cm

Zanshi ori is cloth that is woven from threads either leftover from home production of yarn making, or from broken threads that were purchased from local commercial weavers.  Usually the weft is fed with these random threads while generally the warp is regulated producing an irregular horizontal 'striping'; if home threads are used, knotted slubs can often be seen.

This is a good looking length of cotton zanshi ori and you can see a good deal of variation in the weft yarns which are the yarns that are leftover.

The warp yarns are fixed in columns of white, yellow and blue and against this stable design the random weft yarns are fed: the arbitrary patterning from these yarns is delightful to the eye.

There are about nine patches hand stitched the surface of this length, the contrast in tone and color between the patches and the base cloth is striking.

The are some small holes and surface snags to the piece, none of which are visually distracting or terribly noticeable.