Hallo Pamela,
Thank you for manipulating the images for a better fit. Yes, I see how 'strokes' could me misinterpreted by the less informed, and will limit its use, or perhaps banish it altogether, as indeed there is a method used in some regions where warp is lifted up during the weaving and dyed.
I feel that my cloth, with its relative simplicity of design and b-level execution is more likely to have been owned by someone on the poorer side of society than on the richer. But that kind of expectation may be influenced by what I know of other island societies - as is my expectation of firm correlations between design and place, style and descent, design and belief, such as you would find in a Timor beti from Manufui, a Hubi Iki sarong from Savu, etc. Even after extensive reading in Sandra Niessen's work it is only now dawning on me, that in the Batak lands, such correlations may not be so firm, and that determination, almost as a botanist would, going by the various material aspects, may not always be possible. Perhaps because they eschewed figuration and reduced patterning largely to arrangements of very fine visual elements, some mere specks, the diversity is immense. There are only so many ways you can depict a cockatoo, but there are myriads of thinkable arrays of tiny elements, with different degrees of intricacy.
I enjoy your last question, because the very fact that the question comes up says something about the Batak. This again is so different from the way we would talk about ikat from other islands. Would a Lio woman ever consider wearing a Sikka sarong, other than as a prank when stoned drunk? A Savunese woman from the Hubi Iki moiety who has obtained an Hubi Ae sarong as part of a bridal exchange, say as the bridegroom's sister, might wear the Hubi ae sarong at a festive occasion to show the interwovenness of the two moieties, but she could never wear it to an upacara, and it would always remain a Hubi Ae sarong.
For now I think I could live with your concept of a Toba cloth made for the Karo. If I receive more clarity somehow I shall share it here. Ideally of course, the clarity should appear on this forum. Manna from heaven, as so much of the stuff on this site is. I continue to now and then plug the site on the Textile Lovers group on FB, sometimes by alerting people to a post or inviting them to repeat some information on the forum, but unfortunately most people seem to prefer the immediacy of FB, accepting, perhaps unthinkingly, the tragic built in oblivion. Nothing of all that stuff that is shared is recorded. None of it searchable. Perhaps OATG should promote the site more actively, urge its members to promote it. This site is a great knowledge basis, and every time it is used, its value increases. It also gives people, especially beginners in the field, access to some experts that might otherwise be unreachable for them, perhaps even unknown.
Be well, Peter
_________________ Peter ten Hoopen
www.ikat.us
PUSAKA COLLECTION: ONLINE MUSEUM OF TRADITIONAL INDONESIAN IKAT TEXTILES
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