Jane Webb
Ananda's drawing under Ethel's instruction
This is a section of a drawing by Ananda Coomaraswamy for his wife Ethel Coomaraswamy (later Mairet) that is contained within the book he wrote on Medieval Sinhalese Art in 1906 (copyright for this image remains with the British Library in London). These stitches, shown from the front and the back, are recorded by Ethel as being binding stitches that were traditionally used to strengthen the seams on betel-nut bags in Sri Lanka (then named Ceylon). She calls the stitch patteya (centipede) or mudum mesma (back bone) stitch.
