Blanket

This very bright and colorful cloth is composed of nine strips, each approximately 7 inches to 7.25 inches in width, matching stitched selvage to selvage to develop a coherent pattern across the full width of the cloth. The primary structure is weft-face plain weave with patterns created in both discontinuous supplementary weft floats (brocade) and supplementary weft pile. The weaver had to assemble the strips carefully for the motifs that run perpendicular to the warp to match precisely. The central pattern is a large alternating and black checkerboard diamond-shape with delicate patterns added to both the white and black checkers. Two sets of twelve parallel bands in a variety of colors extend symmetrically on either side. The bands are either of a single color (blue, green, orange, red, black and white) or are made of white thread enliven by bands of continuous supplementary weft chevron and lozenge patterns in red or black. The overall result is an extremely dynamic composition that focuses the eye first to the center of the diamond but then expands to the full vibrant surface of the cloth. With its interplay of colored blocks and two techniques of supplementary weft patterning (weft floats (brocade) and weft pile), this cloth demonstrate the skills of Zarma weavers.