silk making .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................



step 6: ikat


‘ikat’ - a term adopted from the malay word ‘mengikat’, which means ‘to bind, tie or wrap around’ -
is known in thai as ‘mud mii’. the process involves dyeing only certain segments of the yarn,
achieved by first wrapping those parts that are to remain undyed. ikat weaving is one of the most
complicated and time consuming ways to pattern cloth.



image © designboom

on the right side of this picture you can see the pattern, that the yarn weaving should form. in thailand, traditionally it was
used for women’s skirts and for pantaloon - ‘phanung’ in thai - for both, men and women.
it was reserved for important occasions, such as weddings and always kept stored in chests of scented wood.
elaborate ikat patterns like this are often handed down from generation to generation in the same family.




image © designboom
the threads here featured are pre-dyed in orange color and the warp strings are arranged into bundles.
each bundle is tied and dyed separately, so that a pattern will emerge when the loom is set up. this takes a good deal of skill.




image © designboom
the warp threads have been stretched onto a frame.the pattern is formed by wrapping dye resist strips onto areas that
prevents saturation of color..the 'programmed' pattern appears.




image © designboom
an expert carefully measures out on the yarn the scheme of the pattern.
threads can be patterned by repeated binding.




image © designboom
the yarn itself gets patterned. along each length of yarn the colour changes according to the precise formula necessary for
the greater fabric design of which it forms a part. now the yarns can be immersed in a second dye bath.




image © designboom
after the threads are dyed the loom is set up. the pattern is visible to the weaver when the dyed threads are used as warp.
handloom weaving is always extremely complex work, but the combination of mental and physical effort is much greater
when the fabric contains patterns formed by the incorporation of different or uniquely dyed yarns.




image © designboom
dying the weft makes it much more difficult to make ikats with precise patterns. the weft is one continuous strand that is
woven back and forth, so any errors in how the string is tied and dyed are cumulative.
because of this, weft ikats are usually used when the precision of the pattern is not the main concern.
some patterns become transformed by the weaving process into irregular and erratic designs.





step 1:
raising silkworms &
harvesting cocoons		 step 2:
thread extraction		 step 3:
dyeing		 step 4:
spinning		 step 5:
weaving		 step 6:
ikat

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