It is a fabric that belongs to the brocade family of textiles of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. It is hand-woven in silk or cotton, and intricately patterned with gold or silver threads. The metallic threads stand out against the background cloth to create a shimmering effect.
There are two categories of songket weaving equipments; the main weaving equipment made from wooden or bamboo frame; and the supporting equipment which includes thread stretching tool, motif making tool, thread inserting and picking tools. The materials for making songket consist of cotton or silk threads or other fibers as the base fabric and decoration threads made from golden, silver or silk threads. It is believed that in ancient times, real gold threads were used to create songket; the cotton threads were run along heated liquid gold, coating the cotton and creating gold thread. However today because the scarcity and the expensiveness of real gold threads, imitation gold or silver threads are commonly used instead.
