Post #161409 by I dream of tiki on Tue, May 24, 2005 11:04 PM

Geringsing cloth & how it is made

"The most prized ikat in Indonesia is the spectacular geringsing textile produced by the double-ikat method in the indigenous Bali Aga village of Tenganan Pegeringsingan, an incredibly time demanding process that is known to only a handful of weavers around the world: In Balinese, geringsing literally means, “without sickness” & the cloth is said to have magical, protective powers & is frequently part of the traditional costume of the village. These textiles are ritually exchanged to ensure the good health & prosperity of their owner. A single piece of geringsing fabric may take up to ten years to complete & mostly elders still know how to proceed with the dyeing & weaving techniques which are so laborious, difficult & time consuming that the knowledge of such fine art is rapidly being lost. Dyes are all natural as they have been for centuries hence the reds-browns-creams-blues colors used for the making of this rare piece of cloth, found nowhere else in the world except for this tiny Indonesian hamlet. The village of Tenganan, protected up to now from the outside world by its surrounding walls, has maintained its ancient pre-Hindu customs through a strong code of non-fraternization with outsiders: here also, unique ritual offering dances & gladiator battles take place as they have for times immemorial. Double ikat geringsing cloths are very distinct from other ikat cloths in existence & are known for their precision, subtlety & beauty. They are produced by a complex process in which dye-resistant patterns are tied to both the warp (lengthwise) & weft (crosswise) threads before dyeing so that the final pattern appears only after weaving is finished. It is a very laborious task as it involves tying, dying, winding, stringing & weaving the threads of both the weft & the warp to produce the elaborate design. The demanding & time-consuming process was perfected in only three places in the world throughout the centuries: India, Japan, & Indonesia but today, only in the tiny village of Tenganan Pegeringsingan on the island of Bali, can you find such rare & precious textile craftmanship. The exact & highly skilled process, still known to a few elders, ensures that when the fabric is woven, the design will appear precisely & create a magnificently colored figurative ground of great richness & beauty with birds, flowers, animals, dancers, or whatever traditional motif is chosen, in a geometrically stylized perfection. The technique is now a disappearing art as less & less weavers know or are capable of producing such difficult expert work which requires such tedious exactitude. Geringsing cloths are therefore revered & believed to possess magical powers that protect or cure the individual & the community from sickness; they are also indicative of social identity & wealth."

"The tools used below and some of the steps of the process as well"





"Different steps of the geringsing’s production, steps that take months as first. The right color must be obtained among other things over a period of weeks."

"Here is a picture of young girls wearing geringsing during a ceremony."

[ Edited by: I dream of tiki on 2005-06-06 18:16 ]