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Summary:: Piece of woven fabric, using the Northern Star or Auseklis motif, one of the most popular motifs in Latvian design. Woven by Anna Apinis, circa 1960-1970 on a hand made draw loom using 17 shafts. This piece was made to order for a national costume to be worn at Latvian functions, it was made as a skirt length, but was used as a wall hanging for many years. The loom on which this fabric was woven was made for Anna by fellow survivors of the Second World War, in Memmingen, a displaced persons camp in Germany with wood scavenged from bombed-out ruins. It was designed by Anna's husband Ervins. Anna used the loom to weave traditional Latvian designs using threads gathered by unravelling old scraps of fabric. Anna brought the loom with her to Australia and continued to weave Latvian designs on it.
Description:: This fabric length was woven in wool for the skirt of a Latvia National Dress from the Zemgale region. It has been woven in multicoloured stripes and patterns using red, white, black, green, yellow and maroon wool.

Discipline:	History
Dimensions:	1705 mm (Height), 930 mm (Length)

Tagged with:	clothing, crafts, cultural identity, cultural traditions, handcrafts, latvian communities, latvian immigration, woolwork
Themes this item is part of:	Immigration & Artistic Practice Collection, Clothing & Textiles Collection, Cultural Diversity Collection, Migration Collection, Anna Apinis, Latvian Migrant & Weaver, 1950
Primary Classification:	CULTURAL IDENTITY
Secondary Classification:	Ethnicity - Creative Practice
Tertiary Classification:	weaving
Maker:	Mrs Anna Apinis, Revesby, New South Wales, Australia, 1960-1970
Other Association (See Comments):	Zemgale, Latvia Based on a design from this region