Today, we are going to give you a sneak peek into the behind-the-scene of Aso-oke production; the process, materials, and the tools used in the production.
The production of Aso-oke fabric among the people of Yoruba, in southwest Nigeria is long rooted in their culture. The fabric is produced from locally sourced materials ranging from cotton, local silk, bark, goats wool to raffia, commonly used in weaving.
According to a scholar of Textile Design; Picton (1979), weaving is a simple process of interlacing a set of thread (warp and weft) at right angles to form a web or fabric. The two sets of thread which are interlaced together on the loom create a structure that holds the cloth together. The weaving process takes place on a loom.
A loom is a locally constructed weaving machine made of wood. It consists of a set of two, four or six heddles (loops for holding thread), which are used for separating and guiding the warp threads. Several strips are carefully arranged on the loom and sewn together to create a cloth of the desired size.
There are two types of loom used by Yoruba traditional weavers for the production of ‘Aso-Oke’. The first type is the upright single heddle loom, also known as the broad loom specifically used by women.
This type of loom is a fixed vertical frame upon which the warp is held under tension used to weave cloth of a predetermined length with about 30 to 90 cm width to allow two or three pieces stitched together to make a “wrapper” iro for women. The fabric produce on this loom is what experts refer to as kijipa.
The second type of loom used by traditional weavers is called the double heddle loom mostly used by men. This type of loom is horizontal having the unwoven warp yarns stretched out several yards in front of the weaver with a heavy shed to maintain tension.
The double heddle loom produce strips of woven fabrics which is about 14-15cm wide; the fabrics are cut and edge stitched together to make larger piece of cloth which could be used for clothing or coverings.
The men’s horizontal loom compared to the women vertical loom uses more accessories and provides opportunity for the use of a variety of warp threads which often determines the types of design found on Aso-Oke.
These accessories include: heddles (omu aso), treadles (itese), beater (apasa), shuttle (oko), winding shaft (gogowu/ikawu0), shedding stick (oju/poporo), and pulley (ikeke) to describe for the varieties of warp threads and the means for introducing the weft thread.
Weaving involves the crossing of a row of parallel threads called the warp (threads running vertically) with another row called the weft (threads running horizontally) on the loom. The loom is attached to treadles (foot pedals) with pulleys that have spools of thread inserted in them. The pulleys can be used to move the warp threads apart. As the weaver divides the warp threads, he uses a shuttle (a small wooden device carrying a bobbin, or small spool of thread) to insert the weft threads between them.
The striped patterns found in Aso-Oke are made by alternating the colors in the warp. The pedals that are attached to the loom lift up a set of threads so that the weft can be laid at right angle. Depending on how many of the warp threads are lifted, the fabric can be either warp or designed in weft-faced patterns (Aso-Oke is usually warp- faced).
Don’t forget to follow our brands on Instagram @ceomaniaalasooke @ponle_clothings @obabycao stay up to date with our products and styling conversations.
Ciao.
Photo Credit: Google.
