Ikat is everywhere these days in fashion and home furnishings.
But most of what is featured as ikat in magazines or blogs is not real ikat but prints or jacquards made to simulate handmade ikat. Ikat is actually an ancient resist process of tying and dyeing the pattern into the yarn before the fabric is woven. Real ikat is done in only some areas. Southeast Asia, Central America, Japan, Central Asia and India.
When we started designing clothing in 1983, we began by designing ikat in India. It was the 80’s and Issey Miyake was the inspiration.
See the picture in the post Our History Part 1 about how we started in business.
These photos showing the ikat process were taken by Kiran on one of the many design trips we made to a weaving village in Andhra Pradesh to work on new designs.
Laura Singh
Photos by Kiran Singh
Ikat is woven in India in villages where weavers are also farmers.
The village square surrounded by houses and shops. Bullock carts are used to transport crops and fabric.
In each weaver’s home there is a light well and an area on each side for a loom. The door in the back leads to the rest of the house.
A couple prepares the warp on a special wooden wheel that winds just the right amount for a bolt of fabric.
The pattern is first drawn out on graph paper.
The dyer marks the pattern from the graph paper on to the yarn with a pen and ties those marks with a string. Then he wraps rubber from tire inner tubes around the yarn tightly so that the dye won’t penetrate. Only the open areas will take the color.
The dyer dips the open sections of yarn into a bowl of dye. Here I am getting a demonstration.
The yarn after it is dyed and unwrapped. The color is now in the yarn.
A weaver’s wife standing next to a dyed weft for a sari. (The weft is one continuous thread that weaves back and forth across the warp to make the fabric)
A woman preparing the yarn for making the weft. (The yarn that goes the width of the fabric is called the weft)
Ikat dyed yarns are woven onto bobbins for weaving.
The weavers hold up the finished fabric next to the dyed warp which is stretched out in front of the weavers house to dry.
The weaver uses a fly shuttle handloom. Beyond the red part of the fabric the greenish yarn is dyed yarn, not yet woven.