Design research with the use of visual and symmetry analysis in indigenous woven textiles

Since ca the 1990s, there have been developments in the weaving process for making tin chok fabrics in the Long district, Phrae province, northern Thailand, with the aim of reducing the production time and increasing the production capacity with respect to poverty alleviation and cultural revitalization. In this article, the symmetry patterns in tin chok fabrics in a collection of 17 vintage (traditional) skirts held in the Komol Antique Textile Museum, in the Long district, are examined to determine how to distinguish tin chok fabrics woven by the integrated method from those woven by the traditional method. The research includes visual and symmetry analysis, literature review, fieldwork, and the creation of a pattern booklet. This research reveals that the hem, which is one of the four parts (supplementary part one, the main part, supplementary part two and the hem) of the detachable tin chok, is key to distinguishing the fabrics made by the two methods. The four parts of tin chok made by the integrated method will always have a common vertical axis of symmetry, whereas the vertical axes of symmetry of the hem of a fabric made by the traditional method may not be aligned with the motifs in the other three parts. The frieze groups of the individual parts of the 17 vintage (traditional) skirts are decoded and possible corresponding patterns for weaving by the integrated method are generated.