Latin American Textiles

© The Field Museum, A114253D

A Quechua man's poncho, collected in Cuzco or Pisac in 1947 and accessioned in 1962. It is made of 2 unequal pieces of warp faced plain weave, with the head opening left unsewn, an added border sewn on in whipstitch and added twined fringe. The pattern of figured stripes was created by resist-dyeing the warp threads before weaving. In this method, the threads are bound tightly at selected intervals to prevent them from taking up color when immersed in the dye bath, in this case, probably a combination of aniline and natural dyes on undyed wool. The technique is now commonly known by the Indonesian term, ikat. 126 cm long and 152 cm wide.

For further reading, see Wasserman, Tamara and Jonathan S. Hill. Bolivian Indian Textiles: Traditional Designs and Costumes. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1981.

<<Back to Image gallery

Next Textile>>