As with the appliqué textiles on view in this and the adjacent gallery, these cut-pile cloths display an extraordinary range of designs. Of all possible pattern variations, at least two-thirds are found in Kuba textiles, a fact that seems to defy the constraints of the medium. Women created the effect of velvet by threading raffia through tightly woven cloth, then cutting the ends and running a blade back and forth across the pile until it frayed. Despite the regularity of evenly interwoven warp and weft fibers, women enliven these textiles with irregular and off-beat patterns that trick and endlessly please the eye. Multiple women might work upon a single cloth, which could take months to complete. Such sumptuous textiles have been desirable commodities within Congo and on the international market for nearly two centuries.