Software

Andean textiles are distinguished by their complex structures and techniques. To date, we have identified up to five structural levels in museum samples and eight structural levels of cloth in ethnographic examples.

Project researchers have produced three-dimensional images of woven cloth. These are helpful in understanding techniques used in weaving a fabric or restoring the patterns of damaged museum textile samples.

In addition to this website and its Textile Product Search facility, the project also developed two tools - Sawu-3D and InaSawu - for modelling and visualizing the structures and patterns found in Andean textiles, identifying and representing the intellectual contribution of weavers, and helping to protect and enhance the value of their work.

The source files of the Weaving ontology underlying the Textile Product Search facility can be found here.

The Sawu-3D editor was designed to draw 2D and 3D images from the rectilinear constructions of warp-faced weaves, which are the most complex and interesting in the Andean region. It facilitates textile designs in 2D, and then allows a 3D image to be generated of the design. Please contact ILCA if you would like further information.

InaSawu is a generic editor for non rectilinear weaving constructions like sprang, netting, braiding, interlacing, knitting and tricot.  It can also be used for knot diagrams.  It can model complex weaving patterns and can visualize the underlying structure of the textiles. The output of the editor is not intended to replace photographic images which document a textile's surface, but to give a view into the internal structure, which helps in understanding the techniques used in weaving a fabric. It can also be used to document museum specimens.

The InaSawu editor is available here. You need a Mac computer and OS X 10.4. The executable file is available within this distribution file.

Since the end of the project, the latest information about this editor is maintained here. The latest version of the source code is available here. The InaSawu editor’s author is Georges Gyory