Songket – The Queen of Fabrics from Indonesia

Songket – The Queen of Fabrics from Indonesia

Songket – The Queen of Fabrics from Indonesia

prick the base fabric decorating - Songket is a luxury product traditionally worn during ceremonial occasions as sarong, shoulder cloths or head ties. songket is associated with Srivijaya, a wealthy 7th to 13th century maritime trading empire based on Sumatra. Songket is a luxurious textile that required some amount of real gold leafs to be made gold threads and hand-woven into exquisite fabrics, Traditionally-patterned Sumatran textiles embody a system of interpretable emblems. Songket also known as queen of textile

The term songket comes from the Malay or Indonesian word sungkit, which means “to hook”. This term is related with the method of songket making, to hook and pick a group of threads, and then slip the gold and silverthreads in it. Another theory suggested that it was constructed from the combination of two terms; tusuk (prick) and cukit (pick) that combined as sukit, modified further as sungki and finally songket. The word menyongket means ‘to embroider with gold or silver threads’.

There are two categories of songket weaving equipments; the main weaving equipment made from wooden or bamboo frame and supporting equipments which includes thread stretching tool, motif making tool, thread inserting and picking tools. The materials to making songket consist of cotton threads or other fibers as base fabrics and decoration threads made from golden, silver or silk threads. It is believed that in ancient times, real gold threads were use to create songket; the cotton threads are ran along heated liquid gold, coating the cotton and creating gold thread. However today because the scarcity and the expensiveness of real gold threads, imitation gold or silver threads are commonly used instead.

Songket weaving is done in two stages, weaving the basic cloth with even or plain weaving and weaving the decoration inserted into basic cloth, this method is called “inlay weaving system”. The shining gold, silver or silk threads were inserted and weaved into plain cotton basic cloth in certain motifs, creating shimmering effect of golden pattern against darker plain background. The complicated process of songket making is believed to cultivate virtues, as it reflects diligence, carefulness and patience values.

Songket is produced in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Bali, Sulawesi, Lombok and Sumbawa. In every region they create theire own pattern. Such as in Palembang there are naga besaung, pucuk rebung, biji pare, bintang berante, bintang kayu apuy, bungo mawar, bungo melati, bungo cino, bungo jepang, bungo intan, bungo pacik, cantik manis, lepus berakam, pulir, nampan perak, tabur limar and tigo negeri, in Pandai Sikek they have Salapah,  Tampuak Manggih and many more. There are hundreds of songket patterns in all over Indonesia.

In Sumatra the famous songket production centers is in Minangkabau Pandai Sikek area, West Sumatra, and Palembang, South Sumatra. In Bali, songket production villages can be found in Klungkung regency, especially at Sidemen and Gelgel village. While in the neighboring island of Lombok, the Sukarara village in Jonggat district, Central Lombok regency, is famous for songket making.

Cravings of exotic and beautiful fabrics, come to Indonesia!

    Origin from South Sumatra


    Origin from West Sumatra


    Origin from Sulawesi



    Origin from Kalimantan


    Kalimantan Motif


    Origin from Bali

With the information we provide about  prick the base fabric decorating

, We hope you can be helped and hopefully set a precedent with you . Or also you can see our other references are also others which are not less good about  Textiles and Fashion Design Sketchbooks – 20 Inspirational Examples

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