Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Textile industries in Samayil inherited by generations

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SAMAYIL: The weaving craft is one of the traditional crafts that Omanis have practiced through ages. It has been a source of steady income to the weavers in the Sultanate. The Sultanate has paid great attention to the revival and development of these traditional industries to keep pace with modern times and as it established Public Authority for Craft Industries (PACI), a governmental authority, that plays great role in maintaining and developing these industries. PACI has made great strides in this area.


The Textile and Embroidery Training and Production Institute in the Wilayat of Samayil in the Governorate of Al Dhakhiliyah, is one of the training centres that work to refine the Omani talent. There are many craft houses and offices in various governorates of the Sultanate concerned with training the Omani talents in the field of textile industries. The weaving craft includes many different textile industries depending on the product to be manufactured. There are many types of industries based on cotton and wool spinning.


The Bedouins are famous in wool weaving due to the abundance of the raw material (wool) for the industry of wool taken from cattle.


They are still producing different clothes from wool, bedspreads, carpets, mats, and tents. They use goat hair to make ropes and furniture of and camel’s hair other industries, such as Bisht (traditional men’s cloak), bags and belts.


Nasser bin Saif bin Said al Hatmi, Director of the Textile and Embroidery Training and Production Institute, Samayil, says hand weaving production goes through several stages.


Firstly, measurement preparation is one of the initial and important stages to find out the price of the product through the calculation of everything that enters the weaving process.


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Secondly, warping process, which is done manually by warping frame for short warps in the process.

Thirdly,  by shedding the yarns are passed through the eye holes of the heddles as required by the pattern.


Finally for weft insertion, the warp threads pass through another frame called the reed (which resembles a comb).  The weaving which is the last stage, is where the final product emerges, with both wraps, the alongside and the across side are loomed together.


The Omani Izar (a cloth worn round the hips,) has three different sizes, a large size 207 cm and 117 cm, the average size 205 cm and width of 104 cm, small size 180 cm and width 95 cm. The Izar is rectangle in shape and mostly white in colour (with Sinfa on both sides).


Omani Izar has different types depending on the Sinfa, namely: Royal Izar (Diwani), Abu Dharias Izar, Saeedi Izar, Al Jabri Izar, Izar half Jabri, Izar half Jabri, Izar quarter Jabri and Izar of Samail.


The Shathir is a piece of woven cotton, rectangular in shape with coloured vertical stripes to which horizontal stripes are added sometimes.


They come in several colours. They are characterised by the diversity and consistency of different colours. The Shathir is 290 cm in length and 170 cm in width. It is locally called ‘Sharshaf’ a bed cover. Al Sabaeeya, is a long and unsewn robe with different color lines.


It is a woven pure cotton, length of 275 cm and width 136 cm, and usually in dark blue colour.


Al Siha is a mattress or a traditional rug used for multiple purposes, made of pure animal wool in beautiful and bright patterns depending on the type of the used wool. — ONA


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