tribaltextiles.info

Thought you might like to take a look at this Ge Jia babycarrier from Huanping County in Guizhou. Hard to tell the age with paste-resist. It is comprised of two pieces sewn together.

Bill Hornaday

Bill

A very fine Gejia baby carrier piece but most certainly not 'paste resist'. The Gejia are very expert waxers (or 'batik') artists. The girls learn from when they are 6 or 7 and by 16 or 17 they are expert. It is then that they create their wedding outfits. I attach a photo of a Gejia lady demonstrating waxing in 2001. By their standards her demonstration piece is very crude but it gives an idea of how it is done. I can attest as to how difficult the waxing is to do as I attended a workshop given by 2 Geija women in Kaili. I doubt my skill attained that of a Gejia girl aged 6 1/2! See the wax in a crock heated by the ashes.

On the 'to do list' is to turn my photos from Ma Tang village near Kaili taken in 2001 into a photogallery for the main tti site.

I agree that it is very difficult to date these pieces. Work of this quality is still being produced today - although for how much longer! I have seen pieces like yours from the 1980s. I have quite a few Gejia pieces in my own collection gathered over a few years and then with quite a few pieces added from Ma Tang village in 2001.

Thank you for sharing your piece with us.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Pamela,

You are perfectly right. A senir moment on my behalf. While there is paste risist by the group in other areas, I think in Guizhou everthing is wax-resist with Tchanting(sp) tools. Nice pic of the process. For thoose of you with pics, it would be nice to have a series that shows the whole process for the different processes- especially the difficult ones like ikot. Maybe something to think about on our next trips. Unfortunately, dying is difficult, since oit often takes a long time between raw materials and finished dyes. For example, some things can only be harvested under a full moon, etc. Just a thought.

Anyway thanks for the correction.

Bill

Bill

I find 'the process' of creating textiles fascinating and it is core to my collecting and my photography.

There are various photos in the wax resist process at:
http://www.tribaltextiles.info/Galleries/Long_Dong.htm The wax resist is not as fine in this Side comb Miao village as the Geija but the process is similar. the enlargements have some explanatory text. I have made a video of this also.

There are various photos of the hemp/ramie process at: http://www.tribaltextiles.info/Galleries/Ma_Wo.htm and other of my China photogalleries. I have also made a video of this.

In general you will see that many of the photos in the photogalleries on the main www.tribaltextiles.info site focus on the textile preparation process. As someone who has worked with textiles pretty much all my life it is very important to me and I feel very close to many of the (mainly women) in my photos. Give me about 3 or so years (if I last that long until I retire) and I intend to learn to weave so that I can more fully understand the textiles in my collection. I have made some thrum carpets and some tapestry weaving but there is so much I have not done. I am a 'stitcher' (so far) rather than a weaver. I have done basic batik but no ikat. Oh there are some photos in the process for this in my Burma photogalleries http://www.tribaltextiles.info/Gallerie ... eaving.htm

I could go on....and on.....!

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

PS

Instruments for applying wax.... Of course these have different names in different languages and the name Tchanting is Indonesian - and I forget the spelling also!

The word for wax in Chinese (not Miao or Gejia...) may be written in pinyin as la and dye is ran so wax resist (or batik) is known as la ran (don't ask me what the tones are because that is beyond me!). The tool for applying the wax is known as la dio (and dio is knife) so, literally, 'wax knife'. (That took quite a hunt though the notes of my 2001 trip which was focusing on wax resist!)

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Bill

Just a postscript to this thead. I have recently had contact from a collector (currently living in Taiwan) who has assembled his collection, mainly of batik but also some embroidery from south east Guizhou, over 8 years. It consists predominantly of 'Ge Jia, White Collar Miao and Rao Jia batik'.

I received an email from him today which included the following comment which I thought you would be interested in:

I am trying to encourage him to join the forum to share his knowledge with us as we are all keen to learn and share.

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Pamela,

The communication with the gentleman from Taiwan in a great source of information. The piece is so finely woven that I never thought about it being hand-woven, which it is. If I had thought about it I would have seen that as it is two pieces sewn together, it most probably would not be commercial cloth. Could you ask him about how common the practice of Tu Bu is now and when it began to decline (this is only an assumption based on hoiw much labor-intensive techniques have been abandoned).

Hopefully you can talk him into paticipating. We can always use someone knowledgeable about batik, especially from Guizou Miao, which seem to engender interest from most of the board.

Bill

Bill

I will direct him to your question!

For myself I would think that tu bu is very rarely done now unless the village is very remote indeed or possibly very poor indeed. I think that a woman going to create her waxed design would actually prefer to buy the more finely woven and smoother machine made cotton and so, if she has access to markets where it is sold and can afford it, she will buy it by choice. The finer and smoother the cloth the finer is the design which she can create. This is ignoring just now long it would take to produce the hand woven cloth and she would no doubt prefer to spend her time on the actual creation of the wax resist designs in her limited amount of time.

I am so glad that you have discovered something new about your Ge Jia textile - and, no doubt, can appreciate even more the wonderful skill and the huge amount of time that it took to create. Great to have one's eye's opened! I have been photographing a textile for a new mystery thread and it is amazing how differently I am seeing it now than I did when I bought it (in not very good lighting and much less knowledge) four years ago. Also, being able to magnify a photo is giving added insight.

Enjoy your textile!

For a photogallery comprised of photos of Ge Jia baby carriers posted this and other threads on this forum go to: http://www.tribaltextiles.info/Gallerie ... rriers.htm

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Bill

I forgot to mention that your 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).
Your carrier really is a very nice piece!
Do you have any ideas as to the meaning/significance of the spiral pattern that surrounds the main area of pattern and is found on most Ge Jia batik?

Andrew