This fine quality silk sash or shouldercloth is known as a ‘kain selendang’. It was produced using both the weft ikat ('limar') and supplementary weft ('songket') techniques. Limar is produced by first carefully tying and dyeing the weft threads which run horizontally in the cloth’s weave. By doing this and then painstakingly aligning the threads while weaving the cloth, the designs in the cloth emerge. Songket is made by weaving additional supplementary weft threads into the cloth. By floating these supplements over selected warp threads patterns can be produced on the surface of the cloth.This particular textile bears a motif which relates to the Javanese ‘garuda’ pattern, a reference to the bird-like motif which repeats across the centerfield of the cloth. It is typical of Bangka style ‘limar’ cloths.
