Andrew
Hope you don't mind but I have switched your images in .zip format for .jpeg ones. (I downloaded the zip and opened in Photoshop 7 and then saved in Image Ready for the web). I hope that you do not feel that the quality of the image is too much reduced. However, I wanted forum members to be able, easily, to see this absolutely stunning textile.
Thank you so much for sharing it with us. I have never seen anything like this. I was amazed that the detail (which I downloaded first) came from such a tour de force of an overall design with such strong detail. I love the border which just 'dances'. This is not just very well executed wax resist but the overall design elements and control of the whole design is superb.
I was not aware of the Rao Jia. In 2001 I went to Guizhou on a tour with Gina Corrigan on which the focus was batik. We visited a Miao village - Gan He village in Ya Rong township, Huishui county which is in southern Guizhou province (slightly south, south-east) where the village did wax resist using various 'mixtures'. One of these was mixing bees wax, buffalo fat and the resin from what was referred to as the 'god tree' - a maple or 'umber' tree. See
http://www.tribaltextiles.info/Galleries/Gan_He.htm I wonder if your textile has any bees wax in the mixture? I suggest that it may well have done to enable the resist mixture to actually 'set' to allow the dyeing.
A both beautiful and interesting piece - and, I think, something which may 'convert' those who may not (yet) be batik devotees!
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Pamela
http://www.tribaltextiles.infoon-line tribal textiles resource
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