Ring-mouth weaving is a technique of stacking bamboo strips at the same angle to form a circular opening. The foundation weaving surface presents a distinct circular opening, while the outward-facing side shows a multi-pointed star shape. It is a common technique used for making lanterns.
After the rim-weaving technique, there are two circular holes, which is why it was mainly used for making lanterns in the history of Taiwan's bamboo industry. In addition, by adding a plain-woven or twill-woven bamboo panel with an "under-one, over-one" pattern at the opening, it could be made into trays, which were once high-priced export goods. In modern times, rim-weaving has also begun to be applied to wrap pottery and glass bottles to enhance aesthetic appeal, particularly using smoked Makino bamboo, which has a deeper color, to bring out the beauty of the vessels.
According to the bamboo craftsmanship transmission difficulty survey, single-rim weaving is a bamboo weaving technique with a difficulty score of 2 (out of a total of 5 points), while double-rim weaving scores 4 points.The rim-weaving technique is further divided into the "press-four-under-one" technique local to Tainan's Guanhai and Longqi, and the "press-five-under-two" technique of Nantou's Zhushan, with the latter being more complex.The key to the rim-weaving technique is to make the rim appear as a perfect circle. You can check whether the bamboo strips are misaligned by looking at the four-corner grid within the radial structure of the rim weave, and then correct it by adjusting the bamboo strips.In the Guanmiao and Longqi districts of Tainan City, the method emphasizes the right hand, weaving in a counterclockwise direction using an "over-four, under-one" pattern. "Over-four, under-one" means that each bamboo strip, when inserted into the weaving surface, passes over four bamboo strips as it counts forward.
For those unfamiliar with bamboo weaving, the rim-woven lantern is easily mistaken for the pentagon-woven ball. The way to tell them apart is to look at whether the openings radiate outward; if they are radial, it is rim-woven, and if they form pentagonal grids, it is pentagon-woven.
