CIRCA: 1920’s
A textile (fragment) made by a Jalq’a weaver in the Potolo village area, Department of Chuquisaca, Bolivia, with the pallay (design panels) consisting of winged dragons (or horned birds!?) and sun images (or Inti, the principle deity of the pre-Hispanic Inca) woven in a twill weave unique to the Jalq’a people. It was constructed using camelid fibres in the warped-faced weave technique, with the black and red plain-ground ‘panels’ in warp-faced plain weave while the design areas, both zoomorphic and geometric (Inti), are woven in complementary-warp twill weave (where the design remains exactly the same on the front and back except the colours are reversed, as can be clearly seen in the front and back photos shown above (left and right columns).
Given the direction of the warp threads in this piece, that is across what is now the narrow axis (‘normally’ the warps run on the longer axis), this is almost certainly a fragment of a larger textile, probably an aksu (see example via link below), that was once held in some esteem, seeing as this fragment had been kept by its indigenous owners. Of special note is that the lloque* weave technique has been used in the brown yarn of the narrow selvage (see lowest two center photos). This is a technique that is generally reserved for high-quality fabrics or special pieces which when alternating rows of the lloque Z-twisted yarns with the rest of the garment’s S-twisted yarns results in a herringbone-like effect. This lloque weave bestows, according to shamanic custom, divine protection to its owner. It also features ‘chimi’ (the effect produced by the use of two colour plied yarns) throughout the pallay. The size is 63cm x 34cm and it was made sometime in the early 1900’s (or before?), with the winged dragon figures laid out in the highly ordered and neatly spaced traditional method (as opposed to the chaos of the later period with a multitude of figures strewn throughout the field) and the use of natural dyes pointing to this being older than many of its type seen on the market today. While it is in only fair condition, it remains a special piece and must have had some particular significance to be venerated by its original owners.
Collected in Bolivia in the 1970’s.
*The word ‘lloque’ (pronounced ‘yo-kay’) denotes reverse spun yarns that are not commonly used and are said to contain magical properties which are imbued to the textile. That is, the lloque yarns are S-spun and Z-plied – i.e. in the anti-clockwise direction – as opposed to the rest of the textile which is Z-spun and S-plied, i.e. the clockwise direction, which is the normal spin direction for Aymara weaving in general. This reversal of the normal clockwise spin direction can be clearly seen when compared to the yarns placed alongside them as they form a herringbone-like pattern. The alignment of the black and brown yarns in the lower center photo bottom row above clearly show this effect. Other examples of lloque can be seen in the lower left and right photos of this aksu https://warpandweft.club/portfolio-item/south-america-11/