An Insight into the Mathematical Thinking of the Malay Songket Weavers

Abstract

Songket being one of the beautiful traditional crafts of the Malays and appreciated for its aesthetics values and motifs, is hand weaved by the perseverant and patient weavers. There is so much mathematics used in the process of weaving without them putting any thought about the mathematics principles underlying the process. This paper discusses the mathematical thinking of the weavers in the process of songket weaving. Identified from the observations and the interview sessions done on the weavers are some of the basic mathematical concepts such as transformations, measurement and estimation, accuracy and equality.