Touched by Indigo - Royal Ontario Museum
Touched by Indigo - Royal Ontario Museum
Touched by Indigo - Royal Ontario Museum
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
!<br />
WOVEN FABRICS: PLAIN AND DECORATED<br />
Woven fabrics may be plain, subtly patterned, or sumptuously<br />
adorned, depending on the method used to manufacture them.<br />
Although numerous techniques have developed over time, most<br />
fabrics are created with one of three basic<br />
weaves: plain (or tab<strong>by</strong>), twill, and satin.<br />
Plain weave, being the simplest, involves<br />
only interlacing the warp (longitudinal)<br />
threads with the weft (transverse) threads<br />
in a regular over-and-under sequence. The<br />
fabric produced has an even and firm structure<br />
identical on both faces. Since ancient<br />
times hemp, linen, and cotton have been<br />
woven mostly in this simple and fast manner,<br />
for practical and economic reasons.<br />
Over the years, weavers learned<br />
that <strong>by</strong> varying the interlacing sequence<br />
of the warp and weft threads and the<br />
number of strands that made up these<br />
structural elements, floats could be created.1<br />
Floats aligned differently would produce interesting variations,<br />
such as twill, satin, and other float weaves. Silk, a smooth,<br />
pliable, and lustrous fibre, has been woven mostly <strong>by</strong> these more<br />
complex methods. These richly textured and patterned fabrics<br />
are not only sensuous to the touch, but also much more pleasing<br />
to the eye.<br />
In China various kinds of simple looms were already in use<br />
<strong>by</strong> the early Neolithic Age. Two of them, the back-strap loom<br />
and the card loom, are still used today predominantly <strong>by</strong> ethnic<br />
minorities.2 While the back-strap loom produces lengths of fabric<br />
of narrow width, the card loom can only be used to weave<br />
figured sashes. Han Chinese peasants have been using various styles<br />
of horizontal or low-warp looms for weaving hemp and linen since<br />
pre-Qin times. They used them for cotton ever since cotton was<br />
extensively cultivated all over<br />
China after the thirteenth century.3<br />
Their products may have<br />
narrow or wide widths. To make<br />
figured sashes and ribbons, they<br />
use a small and handy ribbon<br />
loom.4 Weavers of figured silk,<br />
on the other hand, rely on a variety of sophisticated looms to meet<br />
the more demanding requirements. The multi-heald and multi-pedal<br />
loom, and a patterning loom which requires two people to operate,<br />
are some examples.5<br />
FOUR CHARACTERS highlighted in red above the two central<br />
figures identify them as "the venerable immortals Mei and Ge." Mei<br />
is generally taken to mean Mei Fu, a prefect of Nanchang during<br />
the Han dynasty. He resigned his office to roam<br />
about in search of immortality after the country<br />
came under the sway of the despotic usurper,<br />
Wang Mang (45 bc-ad 23). Ge has been occasionally<br />
identified as Ge Xuan (ad 164-244), an<br />
alchemist, but more often as his grandson, Ge<br />
Hong (ad 284-364), the renowned Daoist philosopher,<br />
physician, and alchemist.<br />
Although these historical figures lived in<br />
different periods, many legends linking Mei Fu<br />
and one of the Ges have been created to explain<br />
how indigo came to be used for dyeing textiles.<br />
1. MEI FU AND GE HONG, PATRON SAINTS OF TEXTILE-DYEING, Woodblock<br />
print, Ink and colour on paper, Early 20th century, On loan from Dr. WJ. Zurowski,<br />
L2004.11.1, H. 31.6 cm x W. 26.7 cm<br />
13