Yoruba Lace WeaveArtClothMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series:
Diversity of African Textiles
African Textiles: West Africa
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part I
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part II
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part III
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part IV
Djerma Weaving of Niger and Burkina-Faso
Woolen Stripweaves of the Niger Bend
Nigerian Horizontal - Loom Weaving
Yoruba Lace Weave
Nigerian Women's Vertical Looms
The Supplementary Weft Cloths of Ijebu-Ode and Akwete
African Tie and Dye
Tie and Dye of the Dida, Ivory Coast
African Stitch Resist
Yoruba Stitch Resist

Yoruba Lace Weave[1]
The Yoruba are a highly fashion-conscious people. A well to do Yoruba woman swarthed in a matching waist, breast and head cloth is a sight to behold.

Yoruba woman's wedding outfit worn by an Australian woman, Clare Maguire, at her marriage to Abiola Buhari at the Registry Office in Lagos, Nigeria,1997. Clare wore a matching tunic, skirt, shoulder cloth and head cloth.

This man's wedding outfit was worn by Abiola Buhari, a young Nigerian Yoruba man, when he married Australian Clare Maguire (see above) at the Registry Office in Lagos, Nigeria, in August 1997. The heavy cotton material used to make their matching wedding clothes is known as 'asa-oke', and is woven in long narrow strips by Yoruba men. This particular style of fabric is typically worn by Yoruba people.

Although the cloths worn are traditional in shape, size and manufacture, colors can change from season to season and such non-traditional fibers such as lurex can be introduced into the stripwoven cloth. A common form of decoration in Yoruba stripweaves is to introduce rows of holes along the length of the strip. This method is akin to the open technique referred to as 'Spanish lace.'

Yoruba woman's stripwoven cloth.

Lateral rows of four to six tiny holes are spaced every 5 cm (two inches) or so down the strip. A supplementary warp thread is drawn from hole to hole down the length of the strip, giving an almost lacy effect to the cloth. This effect can be achieved in a number of ways. The more prestigious and more expensive method is to incorporate a series of long, slightly thicker and stronger threads that for most of the woven strip lay along its surface.

Yoruba woman's aso oke cloth from Ilorin.

When the weaver wants to introduce a row of small holes into the strip, supplementary yarn is laid in the shed at intervals. These yarns are woven back and forth three times and then carried on the face of the cloth until the next set of holes is to be woven. The structure differs from Spanish lace openwork as the yarns used are supplementary, rather than part of the plain weave ground. Alternatively the weaver can stop adding the regular weft and instead take the floating warp threads, already mentioned, and use them to bind around, and pull apart the regular warps. In the process a new row of holes is formed.

Aso oke woman's strip woven cloth.

A quicker, less expensive and less prestigious method is to introduce a piece of thick, barely malleable wire, the width of the strip bent into the shape of a fine knuckle-duster or jumping jack firecracker with a width the same as the strip and then weave around it. When the knuckle duster is removed, it leaves a row of holes that lack the definition and permanence of the former method. These techniques are used to decorate popular sets of women's clothing consisting of one lager and two smaller wraps.

Yoruba woman's cloth with supplementary weft float decoration and lace weave.

Reference
[1] J. Gillow, African Textiles, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London (2003).