![[Stiff, vest-like, New Guinea cane body armor, collected near Wamena, Irian Jaya, Indonesia: 15k]](../../../images/shbodycn.gif "© Carolyn Leigh, 2005. All rights reserved.")
Figure 1: New Guinea cane body armor, collected near Wamena, Irian Jaya, Indonesia.
Body armor was common in the West Sepik and Western Provinces in PNG and is still used in the Highlands of Irian Jaya. This cane body armor is like a thick, stiff, sleeveless shirt.
![[New Guinea body armor knotted from string made from tree bark: 18k]](../../../images/shbodybi.gif "© Carolyn Leigh, 2005. All rights reserved.")
Figure 2: New Guinea knotted string body armor, collected in Irian Jaya, Indonesia.
This second armor is woven from string made from the inner bark of a tree. The knotting uses variations on a continuous figure-8 technique. The string is twisted as the work progresses. The bands of different colors on the upper part of the vest are created from orchid vine wrapped around the central core of tree bark string.
Figure 3: Detail of the different knotting techniques used in the vest.
![[Detail of New Guinea body armor showing knotting technique: 27k]](../../../images/shbodydt.gif "© Carolyn Leigh, 2005. All rights reserved.")
Back to New Guinea Shields.
Order art on-line: dealers and galleries
Wholesale information for dealers
![[New Guinea art logo]](../../../images/logorblk.gif "© Carolyn Leigh, 2005. All rights reserved.")
http://www.art-pacific.com/artifacts/nuguinea/shields/bdyarmor.htm
Contact Us
Artifacts on this site are collected in the field by my husband, Ron Perry. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. More background in Who We Are. Art-Pacific has been on the WWW since 1996. We hope you enjoy our New Guinea tribal art and Indonesian folk art as much as we do. Carolyn Leigh, P.O. Box 85284, Tucson, AZ 85754-5284 USA, Art-Pacific at http://www.art-pacific.com/