Juli 22, 2010

Treasures in the house: Ikat

Browsing the web lately shows that Ikat is a big trend at the moment. The Etsy Finds from UK featured a lot of Ikat items on the handmade market this week.

1. MAYKHA Dress by bluemaykha 2. Bamboo handwoven scarf, ikat-dyed by exclusivelybyv 3. greta panel dress by cristinapires 4. Cushion by GalleriaAust 5. Silk Pillow covers by bluemaykha 6. Ikat Drum Lampshade by StudioJOTA 7. Linen and Silk Cushion by bestill 8. Ikat Pillow - Glorious Silk by MaterialRecovery 9. Vintage Kimono Ikat Silk Sling Bag by momijistudio 10. handwoven ikat pillow by laigrai 11. Padded Ikat Cotton Kindle by JiuJiu

Handmade design blog Poppytalk featured the Indigo Ikat's of Mary Bergtold-Mulcahy for Les Indiennes:

Design #9 - Floral Cross

And even US dicounter Target has a Ikat - bedlinen set on Sale!

Home Ikat Reversible Comforter Set - Blue from Target

Well, we've our own Ikat story... Ikat is an Indonesian word, which actually means cord, thread or knot. It's a special technique of dying a fabric: The thread gets dyed first and the pattern comes out, if it gets woven. This technique makes a fabric almost as beautiful at the back side, than at the front side. And it needs a lot of counting and very precise dying work before... For sure, this challenge is only experienced by crafters who do everything by hand. Can you imagine, that some women need some month to finish a piece of Ikat?

Ulos Maker, originally uploaded by Rudy Suyanto.

No wonder, that a lot of Indonesian ethnics need this kind of fabric for social and religious ceremonies. A Ikat can be symbol of land, power, wisdom, honour...

We still remember the time, when a lot of handmade Ikats from Eastern Indonesia have been on sale. Our Mom bought them like crazy. We loved to choose the pattern, but start thinking about what to do, with all this dark colored fabric...

Well, you can still find handmade Ikat in Indonesia, but there are a lot of machine mades now and our Mom's collection will be kept untouched for sure! It's a treasure in the house!