Ge Jia textiles: baby carriers

A detail of a winter Ge Jia baby carrier from Huanping County, Guizhou province in the collection of Bill Hornaday which he purchased in 1994. Andrew Dudley has commented that "Bill's Ge Jia batik baby carrier is very good. It has been made using tu bu homemade/handwoven cloth rather than yang bu the single piece of finer, bought cotton cloth. The pattern looks to be about 60 years old, but as you will be aware, dating these things is very difficult as patterns were copied mother to daughter."

Andrew also commented that the "baby carrier is actually a winter baby carrier. There would be a backing cloth stitched to the 'batiked' piece with cotton wadding stuffed inside. Maybe there are signs of cotton wadding still stuck to the back of your piece unless it has never been used. Most winter baby carriers (that I've come across) are made using a single piece of machine woven batik and a backing cloth made of two pieces of hand woven cloth. The narrower width of hand woven cloth, as used for your carrier, is fairly standard and can be found being used for bed covers (3 widths), baby carriers, baby wraps and jackets (each 2 widths)."