cloth;
skirt
- Museum number
- Af2006,23.24
- Description
-
Indigo stitch resist-dyed cotton cloth; skirt. Composed of six wide strips in plain weave hand sewn together. Strips have alternating groups of black- and indigo-dyed warp threads in machine-spun cotton. The indigo warp threads are decorated with alternating triple dot and linear patterns throughout. Plain indigo and black warp striped bands at either end except for dotted semi-circles at edge of each strip; unworked warp thread fringes.
- Dimensions
-
Length: 170.50 centimetres
-
Width: 110.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- This woven indigo-dyed cotton cloth is identified by the generic name "saranfini", which means in Bamanankan "stitched cloth", referring to the stitch-resist dye method. This type of indigo dyed skirt is widely used among the Soninke and Khassonke women in north-western and western Mali. They are used as women’s wraps, and also could be used by seamstresses to make tops. They are commissioned by women either for their domestic use or for sale. The women-clients would gather the threads required and commission a weaver to create the required strip length which would vary according to the desired length and width for the skirt (a wider skirt would require a greater number of strips to be sewn together). Once woven, the strip is cut into the required number of strips which are sewn together. The assembled skirts are dyed either by specialists-dyers (women) or by the owner (in some rural areas where indigo-dyeing is still practised). Most of the designs used in the dyeing of the "saranfini" have specific names.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2006 (22 November)
- Acquisition notes
- Purchased during a fieldwork and collecting trip to Mali by Dr Claude Ardouin (Dept of AOA) from 10-25 November 2006.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af2006,23.24