Hand Woven Charcoal Ikat Sarong

Hand loomed ikat sarong or shawl, in charcoal with white, turquoise and pink design.

1.65m x 2.2m

Wash with similar colours on delicate cycle with mild detergent.  Dry indoors or in the shade.  Do not bleach.

Ikat is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles that employs resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric. 

Resist dying for ikat is when the yarn is bound tightly to ensure it resists/does not take on colour during the dying process.  This item was dyed 3 times:  once for the charcoal colour when all of the blue, white and pink areas were bound.  Then the blue areas were unbound and dyed blue, then the same for the pink and ultimately the white areas were unbound and left un-dyed.  Once all of the yarns have been dyed like this, it is lined up on the loom in the order that will yield the intended pattern, and only then weaving starts.