Thanks very much, MAC, for your input.
I am completely swamped and drowning this end and I very cheekily asked for help from someone who has researched in Borneo, particularly amongst the Iban, and has written about them. I never cease to be amazed by the depth and breadth of his knowledge. He is reticent about appearing on the forum but happy to help us. He agrees with MAC about top and bottom skirts being sungkit and the middle one being pilih.
He gave me some helpful comments about the relevant weaving techniques:
Quote:
"Sungkit is a weft wrapping supplementary technique in which the supplementary wefts are wrapped around the warp and then knotted very finely. The weft locks wraps and knots into place. The knots after a sequence cannot be repeated any further are cut finely with a sharp knife. In the Batang Ai in Sarawak and in Kalimantan Barat some weavers stopped cutting the ends of supplementary wefts starting probably in the 1960s for skirts because they could not be seen. It only rarely was done with pua' sungkit. The Bhutanese did much the same with their cloths. My efficiency principle coming into action.
Pilih is another supplementary embroidery [in the sense of adding threads, not using a needle to sew] method using a continuous weft in which additional weft shuttles float in front of and behind the warp to indicate the design. Often with the Iban the supplementary wefts are paired red and black strips which is what your correspondent is thinking about when he talks about a mirror image."
He also drew my attention to a forum thread started by John Kreifeldt back in 2004 with some comments from Georges Breguet when John was thinking about writing an article on pilih. There are some good photos including close-ups. See:
viewtopic.php?t=2265
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Pamela
http://www.tribaltextiles.infoon-line tribal textiles resource