In August (2014), I was in North Sumatra for less than a
week, but I had a few precious hours with my beautiful daughter, Lasma
Sitanggang. Poor dear gets terribly car sick, but she came all the way from her
Simalungun village to meet me in Pematang Siantar.
Lasma had become more grown-up. She is bright and determined. |
She was bursting with news. I have never seen her so charged
with ideas. The topper was that she had finished weaving her first
textile. She carefully unfolded it to show me, trying to be nonchalant while
she was electric with excitement. I couldn’t believe my eyes. She had kept her
work as a surprise for me.
We scrutinized it together. She had done a remarkably good
job. The selvedge edges were straight and even – a sign of an experienced and
good weaver! She showed me where she had repaired yarns that had broken. She
knew from our travels together that only sloppy weavers just cut the broken
yarns; good weavers repair them in special ways (the Batak have ancient prescriptions and proscriptions concerning broken yarns and the spirit world). Her
mother, once an excellent weaver, had coached her. And not just her mother!
Older women apparently yelled out their advice as they passed by her window. All
of them are experienced in the art of weaving. Her work had inspired them, she
said. They want to weave again if there is a market! The weaving of her textile
had taught her that if she put her mind to it, she would be able to
re-kindle weaving in her village. Her first textile was so much more than a
first textile; it represented new insights and it gave her inspiration and
energy.
Also new learning. The stripes in Lasma’s textile were not
all of equal size although they all had the same number of warp yarns.
This meant that she had not distributed the warp yarns evenly across the breast
beam -- something she would keep in mind for the next textile. She was itching
to get at it again – and also to learn about supplementary weft. Enough women
in the village want to teach her. This, while at the outset finding a teacher
was her greatest challenge!
Lasma hadn’t had time yet to finish the fringes of her first
textile. The fringes are going to take some effort and time. She
explained precisely how she wants to do it, including the techniques involved. I
won’t give away her secret; I shall wait until the textile is finished to make
pictures of it. It will be an innovative and unique textile. And it will be a kind of craft
baptism.
Lasma
has received her first textile order! How exciting! I plan to help her locate some indigo-dyed
yarn. It would be wonderful if all of her products could be environmentally
friendly.
Congratulations
dear Lasma! Your first textile is a launching pad. I hope that you have found
an outlet for your creative powers and that you will find satisfaction always
in your ancient, beautiful art. May it be a stepping-stone to a future of your
own making.
Lasma wearing a Hill Tribe hair ornament that I brought to her from Thailand. Here she is with her church friends with whom she teaches Sunday School. |