{"id":21033,"date":"2025-12-05T14:45:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T12:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/?post_type=product&p=21033"},"modified":"2025-12-09T16:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T14:06:08","slug":"3167","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/en\/object\/3167\/","title":{"rendered":"Shuttle (Saita)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At its centre is a wooden bobbin wound with thread, mounted on metal springs that act as shock absorbers and allow the thread to unwind smoothly. At one end, the metal launching tip is visible, while at the other there is a small mechanism for holding the bobbin\u2014a detail indicating a later, more industrial manufacture, in contrast to earlier handmade shuttles. The interior surface is precisely hollowed and smoothed to reduce friction, and the ends are reinforced to withstand constant impact.<\/p>\n

Such shuttles were used on the mechanical looms of Nea Ionia\u2019s large weaving mills. Refugees from Asia Minor brought with them deep technical knowledge of weaving and silk, and the saita became an emblem of their labour: thousands of women and men heard it \u201csing\u201d day after day as it travelled back and forth across the looms, producing fabrics that circulated throughout Greece. This particular shuttle bears clear signs of use\u2014wear at the tips, polishing from continuous contact with thread, and small dark stains from lubricants\u2014confirming extensive operation in a real industrial environment. It is an authentic testimony to an era when Nea Ionia was not only a refugee district, but one of the most important productive hubs in the Balkans. It is exhibited at the Textile Museum of KE.MI.PO., Municipality of Nea Ionia.<\/p>\n

Kindly made available for photography by KE.MI.PO., Municipality of Nea Ionia.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This shuttle, dated to around 1940, is a characteristic tool of textile production in Nea Ionia, a city that justly acquired the epithet \u201cthe Manchester of Greece\u201d due to the extraordinary concentration of factories, weaving mills, and silkworks established by Asia Minor refugees. Made of hard, durable wood\u2014most commonly beech or mulberry\u2014the shuttle is elongated, aerodynamic, and symmetrical, so that it can travel swiftly across the loom opening, carrying the weft between the warp threads.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":20898,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[214],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21033","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-textile-tools","8":"first","9":"instock","10":"shipping-taxable","11":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/21033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=21033"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=21033"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alaya.gr\/digitalmuseum\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=21033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}