Bag

A flat rectangular bag (kete muka) made from New Zealand flax, in pale green and undyed fibre, with a slightly irregular shape. There is a wide fringe around three sides on the back and front, and one twisted fibre handle. This bag was made by finger-weaving or twining and the main technique is double-pair twining, which forms the wefts (aho). This began at the top edge with a selvedge, and finished at the bottom where the warp threads (whenu) were left loose, and are covered by the fringes. There are eight warps per cm, and the wefts are 15 mm apart. The irregular shape is due to an extra row of twining branching off from one of the main wefts about four cms from one edge on the front and the back. The fringe threads are joined by a line of single-pair twining and sewn onto the bottom and side edges. There is one fringe on the back of the bag and one on the front. Every ninth warp crosses over eight others in pairs between the wefts, forming a cross-diagonal pattern over the front and back of the bag.