What is Overshot Weaving?

HISTORY
People have been hand weaving fabric on looms for at least four thousand years. The wrappings worn by Egyptian mummies were loom woven. The simplest looms are merely frames for holding the warp (the yarn running from front to back) in place while the weft (the material running across the warp) is alternately threaded over and under the warp. More complex looms use some method of threading the warp through harnesses and lifting the warp into a shed through which a shuttle (a device for holding the weft) may be passed or thrown. The simplest of these looms use two harnesses, one to lift the even numbered warp ends, and one to lift the odd numbered ends. More sophisticated looms use many harnesses; the more harnesses, the more complex the patterns which may be woven. The type of weaving Jain does is woven on fairly simple four harness looms.