Materials & Techniques

Loops or ends of yarn or fiber projecting from the plane of a fabric to form a raised surface (which tend to conceal the foundation fabric in which the yarn or fiber are secure).

A fabric structure in which pairs of twining elements enclose or pass through opposing pairs of twining elements. In oblique intertwining, the twining elements move on opposed diagonals, on courses that are oblique to the edges of the fabric. In simplest variation found in Peru, each twining pair encloses only one element of the opposite pair.

A join formed by linking the elements of adjacent areas with each other each time they meet. Such joins are characteristic of highland tapestry weaving styles, such as Huari and Inca, and coastal groups such as the Inca.

The weft yarns placed at the beginning of the weaving that are different from the rest of the textile. In Peruvian textiles they are usually distinguished by being thicker than the rest of the weft yarns or by being made up by multiple yarns.

Weave structure in which certain warp elements are crossed over (or under) adjacent warp elements, retained in their out-of-line position by the interlacing of weft elements, retained in their out-of-line positions by the interlacing of weft elements, and immediately or eventually recrossed to their original order. Often such fabrics are thin, open, and transparent.

Any portion of a warp or weft element that extends unbound over two more units of the opposite set of either face of a fabric.

Irene Emery, The Primary Structures of Fabrics (Washington D.C.: The Textile Museum, 2009): 92.

A weft that deviates from the horizontal and from the normal right-angled relation to the warp. It is commonly used in tapestry weave to produce diagonal designs.