Lowland Lao Shoulder Bag with red background, vertical multi-colored stripes and horizontal line motifs of triangles and 4-petal flowers. Weft has cotton yarn bundles with rayon? thread woven in to create lines of yellow triangles, white, blue and green stylized flowers. Warp is red rayon? thread similar to embroidery floss with 3 stripes in each section of blue, green, purple and yellow thread. Two separate pieces wee woven and sewn together by machine to form the bag. The body is made up of one piece folded in half with opening at top; the edges are turned and machine sewn. The sides and handle are formed by folding one piece in half lengthwise and sewing it to one side of the body, bringing the handle across the top and sewing the piece to the other side of the body. The side pieces are machine sewn across the bottom with black thread. A self-fringe hangs down from each side piece and a strand of weft threads are left hanging free near the top of the body. Traditionally the bag would be used by both men and women. This bag was probably produced for tourist trade.

1993.049