ETAN/US is happy to make available a selection of hand-woven, beautiful, finely crafted heavy-weight cloth. Each an original made by an Timor women’s weaving co-op, the various weavings are offered for sale for $75-100 or as a gift/premium for your $500 contribution.

Traditional Timorese cloth (called "tais") is usually made by women using a simple hand loom. The vertical threads are coloredusing a special process in which sections of the thread are wrapped in string before dyeing. The sections of the thread that are wrapped don’t pick up the color of the dye and are left plain or dyed acontrasting color. When these threads are woven into a piece of cloth, the different colored sections make a pattern. ETAN has both tubes and rectangular cloths, in a variety of traditional designs from different regions of East Timor. We can provide a brochure if you’re interested.

The weavers sit on the floor in their homes or on a straw mat outdoors. Each horizontal thread is passed through the cloth by hand and then pushed into place using a wooden cross-bar. The cloth can be woven as a long strip with fringe to be used as a tablecloth, scarf or shawl. It can also be sewn in to a tube so that it can be worn as a sarong.