The Regional Flavours and Global Language of IKKAT Weaving

 The word IKKAT is derived from the Indonesian word Mengikat, meaning to tie. It is a technique that employs resist dyeing similar to tie and dye on the warp and/or weft threads prior to weaving. Alteration to the bindings and dyeing in more than one color and removal of all bindings produce multicolored patterns on weaving.

Ikkat weaving is usually of three types: Weft, Warp and Double Ikkat.

In the more complex and labour intensive weft ikkat, the warp is in plain colors and not tied prior to weaving. The weft threads are tied and dyed and inserted by hand one at a time into the warp to create the fine pattern.

In warp ikkat, on the other hand, the warp threads are tied and dyed and laid out on the loom. The pattern is visible on the loom once the bindings are opened. Plain colored threads are then introduced by a shuttle. This is a much simpler, less time-consuming process.

Double Ikkat is a technique in which both warp and weft are resist-dyed prior to stringing on the loom. This is mainly produced in India, Japan, and Indonesia. The double ikkat in Japan is woven in the Okinawa islands where it is called tate-yoko gasuri. In Indonesia, it is made in a little town Bali Aga, Tenganan in East Bali. The twofold ikkat of India is prevalently woven in Gujarat and is called patola.

Some famous variants of the ikkat technique are practiced in South Asia, India, and Latin America.

The Cambodian ikkat is a weft ikkat woven of silk on a multi-shaft loom with an uneven twill weave which results in the weft threads showing more prominently on the front of the fabric rather than the back. By the 19th century, Cambodian ikkat began to be considered among the finest textiles of the world. The most intricately patterned Cambodian fabrics are the sampot hol-skirts worn by local women and the pedans, wall hangings used to decorate the pagoda or the home for special ceremonies. Following the huge interruption and obliteration amid mid-twentieth century Indochina wars and particularly amid the Khmer Rouge administration, most weavers were executed and craft of Cambodian ikkat was confronted fast approaching peril of vanishing. Be
that as it may, it has since been restored and Khmer Rouge survivors who knew the craftsmanship have shown it to another age of weavers.

With the distinct language of ikkat weaving having been adopted across the world, it remains at once both an indigenous product and a symbol of international expression, a fitting representative of global ties and unique ethnic roots.