Ikkat Pattern in Textile Techniques

 Ikkat Pattern –

Ikat also spelled as Ikkat, is a dyeing procedure used to pattern textiles that utilizes a resist dyeing course of action comparable to tie-dye on moreover the warp or weft fibers.

Ikat is an Indonesian language word, which depending on cord, thread, knot and the finished ikat fabric as well as “to tie” or “to bind”.

It has a direct etymological relation to Javanese language of the same word. Thus, the name of the finished ikat woven fabric originates from the tali (threads, ropes) being ikat (tied, bound, knotted) before they are being put in celupan (dyed by way of dipping), then berjalin (woven, intertwined) resulting in a berjalin ikat- reduced to ikat.

Bindings which resist dye penetration are functioned to the threads in the preferred patterns and the threads are dyed. Adaptation of the bindings and the dyeing of more than one color produce complicated, multi colored patterns. When all of the dyeing is finished the bindings are removed and the threads are ready to be woven into cloth.

The defining characteristic of ikat is the dyeing of patterns, by means of bindings into the threads before cloth production, the weaving of the fabric takes place. In tie-dye the fabric is woven first and the resist bindings are then applied to the fabric which is dyed.

In warp ikat, the patterns are obviously visible in the warp threads on the loom even before the plain colored weft is commenced to generate the fabric. In weft ikat, it is the weaving or weft thread that carries the dyed patterns which only emerge as the weaving proceeds. In weft ikat the weaving proceeds much slower than in warp ikat as the passes of the weft must be suspiciously attuned to preserve the clarity of the patterns.

Double Ikat is where both warp and the weft are resist-dyed preceding to stringing on the loom. Traditionally and still commonly, a back-strap loom is used though any variant or modern loom may be used.

As woven fabric hardly ever endures for more than a few centuries it is enormously complicated, if not impossible, to determine where the technique of ikat instigated. It almost certainly developed in more than a few different locations independently. Ikat was known to be produced in numerous pre-Columbian Central and South American cultures.

Ikkat Pattern

Oshima Ikat

Oshima ikat is an exclusively Japanese ikat. In Oshima ikat, the warp and weft threads are both used as warp to weave stiff fabric, upon which the thread for the ikat weaving is spot-dyed. Then the mats are unraveled and the dyed thread is woven into oshima cloth.

The Oshima process is reproduced in Java and Bali but known locally as ikat and is held in reserve for declaring royalty, most especially the dodot cloth semi-cummerbund of Javanese court garments.

Patterns consequence from a combination of the warp dye and the weft thread color. Commonly vertical-axis reflection or “mirror-image” symmetry is used to provide symmetry to the pattern- more simply whatever pattern or design is woven on the right is duplicated on the left in reverse order or at regular intervals, about a central warp thread group.

Patterns can be created in the vertical, horizontal or diagonal.

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