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TEXTILES

Chola shawl from Cuenca. First half of the 20th century.

Chola shawl from Cuenca. Caton Gualaceo. Azuay Province. Ecuador. First half of the 20th century.

 

Beautiful garment made up of cloth and lace. The first, woven with Creole cotton yarn, at the warp side on a backstrap loom, has been decorated with the ikat technique, consisting of tying certain threads of the warp before immersing it in the dye bath, in this case indigo. , to preserve sectors of the fabric forming drawings. This technique, common since pre-Columbian times throughout the Andean corridor, has a peculiarity in these pieces: while it is customary to preserve the threads that will form the "negative" drawing by tying, here we see these signs in blue, as an ornament. of old pre-Columbian lineage. In these shawls, the drawing is what is exposed to the dyeing because the weaver has preserved the light blue color of a first dye over the original yellowish of the Creole cotton on a large surface of the fabric. The lace, for its part, is the one that adorns the ends of the garment; It has been preserved from all staining and the craftswoman -sometimes one specialized in this technique, different from the one who wove the cloth- has been applied to intertwine the threads with thousands of knots adjusted "by fingernail" to capture traditional figures such as those of the roosters and those of the bunches of grapes, some symbols of value and others of abundance, with interlocking fret guards, representative of the marriage union, culminating in a rain of fine threads like free fringes. Measures. Total length: 230 cm. Width: 79cm. Fringes: 15 cm.

 

Due to its structure, it brings together two unique techniques of the Ecuadorian textile culture: the knotting of its lace and the ikat, current intangible heritage of Ecuador. [1]

 

As a garment, the rebozo was part of the luxury wardrobe that completed the festive or ceremonial dress of the chola native to Cuenca (Ecuador) from colonial times to the first half of the 20th century. It had to be woven by the marriageable young woman and was part of her marriage trousseau.

 

Note:

1. Jackeline Beltrán, Ikat is the new intangible heritage of Ecuador, Diario "El Comercio", Ecuador, July 8, 2015, pp. 17-18.



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