Ikat

Ikat is one of the textile trends at the moment and even though the blue and white variation is very popular in modern homes, there are so many different styles available. The Ikat design has a long history but because textiles disintegrate over time it has been impossible to determine exactly when and where it originated. Ikat textiles production is found almost the entire world over from Maritime Southeast Asia to Africa and Latin America. It is unclear who made it first or whether it was transferred to each other through trade as each culture making it appears to have developed complex dying and weaving methods indicating that it existed there for many centuries.

Ikat is known for its “blurry” design and this is a direct result of the method used in making it. Ikat is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles using resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric. The resist is formed by binding individual yarns or bundles of yarns with a tight wrapping in the desired pattern. The yarns are then dyed. The bindings may then be altered to create a new pattern and the yarns dyed again with another colour. This process may be repeated multiple times to produce elaborate, multicolored patterns. When the dyeing is finished all the bindings are removed and the yarns are woven into cloth. Lining up the dyed yarns is what causes the “blurriness” of the design and this can be reduced if finer yarns are used and the weaver is a master. Ikats with little blurriness, multiple colours and complicated patterns are more difficult to create and therefore often more expensive. However, the blurriness that is so characteristic of ikat is often prized by textile collectors.