Ikat

絣 / ancient– / Technique / Textile Traditions

A technique in which the threads are bound and dyed before weaving, calculated so that the pattern appears only once the cloth is woven. A slight shift of the threads blurs the outline, and that wavering is the fingerprint of ikat. Design and chance live in the same process.

Ikat — Patan patola double ikat (Gujarat, India, trade cloth for the Indonesian market) — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Jainamishra — Patan patola double ikat (Gujarat, India, trade cloth for the Indonesian market) — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Jainamishra

Ikat — Ceremonial kain endek ikat cloth, Buleleng, Bali, late 19th century — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Ceremonial kain endek ikat cloth, Buleleng, Bali, late 19th century — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Ikat — E-gasuri pictorial ikat with plover motif, from an early 20th century kimono — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Chris Hazzard — E-gasuri pictorial ikat with plover motif, from an early 20th century kimono — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Chris Hazzard

At a glance

Visual cues

Pattern edges where the outline bleeds
Warp and weft dyed separately
Calculated placement of color
Wavering caused by shifts in the weave

Best used for

Making the outline of a pattern deliberately indistinct
Making the weaving process itself a condition of the design

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Dictionary entry

Type: Use simple, large letterforms that hold up against the bleed.
Composition: Derive the repeat unit backwards from the width of the cloth.
Material: Dye at the thread stage and weave without correcting the shift.
Caution: Imitating the bleed in print will not produce the history of the thread. The order of the process is the meaning of the pattern.
Further study: The difference between warp ikat, weft ikat and double ikat / The Indonesian, Central Asian and Japanese lineages / Its modernization in meisen

Related entries

Shibori (絞り染め)Same Textile Traditions lineage.Compare Ikat and Shibori
Meisen Kimono (銘仙)Shared effects: Nostalgia.Compare Ikat and Meisen Kimono

Often confused with

Shibori (絞り染め)compare

Cite this entry

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Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/ikat
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