Southeast Asian women produce some of the world's most beautiful fabrics by inserting extra or supplemental weft yarn into a pattern when weaving.
To create patterns, they use a loom with two rows of basic beams and additional ones to separate the warp for inserting the weft. The complexity of the pattern determines the nunber of beams. The inclusion of extra weft is done in two ways: either it runs through the entire breadth, above or below, or it is interlaced where the pattern begins. The weaver then works in the reverse.
Sam Neua Province in Laos is famous for its supplementary weft patterned clothes.
