When we started re-building our website last year, we thought it would take a few weeks, as all the material was already in the old website. Ten months later, we are finally launching the new site. There was so much information in the old site, it took a lot of work to move it. So, why did we go to all this trouble? First, the old site was showing its age! Second, we wanted to reorganize the site to respond to how people were using it, putting the most frequently visited areas in the top line menus. And third, we wanted to respond to the requests for an online retail section: This last part had been a goal of ours for years.

(Also, our apologies to those of you who have visited the site over the last couple of weeks, who will have noticed it was down a lot of the time. One of the plug-ins on the site got hacked and all sites using that plug-in got shut down by Wordpress as a precaution. It then took a while to fix.)

Our field work season has been very busy this year. After a long buying and research trip across Timor in early May, our Balinese staff celebrated their 10-day Galungan festival. June saw concurrent field work in Sulawesi and again Timor, followed by Lembata. It was an intense schedule before the Ramadan fasting season, when travel becomes more challenging as all our favorite food vendors will be closed during the daytime. 

 

Since August there has been field work in Flores, Timor again, Sumba, Java, and Kalimantan. Currently we have staff on the road in Savu and Flores again, before a final long trip around Timor to wrap up the field trip season before the weavers put away their looms and get out their hoes for the agricultural season.

 

We haven't yet written up any Field Notes from this work yet, but hope to do so soon!

 

Lau Pahudu 

Ceremonial Tubular Sarong (2013)

Tied by Hiwa Ranja Rudung

Dyed by Ina Jilik and Ata Hina

Woven by Hawu Rima

Rindi, Sumba

Warp Ikat, supplementary warp patterning with beading

Handspun cotton, natural dyes

64 x 146 cm (25 x 57 in)

Code # T01.SU.RE.205 

 

Designed by Tamu Rambu Hamueti, this textile is from the Uma Penji royal household of Rindi. It is in the same tradition as the 2010 Lau Pahudu Hada (code # T01.SU.RE.160), blending techniques and motifs from the villages of Pau and Rindi. Both display extraordinary detail of ikat work and dye saturation, but with the current cloth this has been achieved on handspun cotton. 

 

Lau Pahudu means a tubular ikat sarong with supplementary warp patterning. The ikat motifs in the main ikat bands are Wala Ai, a flower, and Karihu, which is a seashell representing the bounty of the sea. The Karihu motif relates both to the mythological time when the ancestors crossed the ocean to arrive in Sumba, and to the actual time during the 19th century when Rindi was founded. As such it may only be used by high ranking families descended from the village's founder.