Handmade Ikat fabrics

The fabric from which we sew is made by hand using a technique that has been around for centuries. It is called “ikat” or “abrband”. From Persian “abr” means cloud, and “band” means to tie. Read to the end and you will understand why “the clouds are tied.”

First, the artist makes the pattern, and then the threads are hand-dyed. And this is a very important point that distinguishes this fabric from any other. On ordinary modern fabric, the design is applied on top of the finished woven fabric by a machine and is therefore called a “print”. But here it’s the other way around – already dyed threads are woven into the fabric, forming the intended pattern. The fabric in this technique has both the “face” and the back the same.
The dyeing process is extremely labor-intensive. Starting with the lightest shade, the threads are dipped into dye (often using all-natural dyes such as pomegranate, walnut bark, indigo, onion, etc.), dyed, then tied, protecting the resulting color. Then they dip it again in paint of a different color, then tie it again. And so on until all the colors are painted. And that’s why the name has “band” – to tie.
Then the threads go to the loom. And often they are also woven by hand.
The pattern on the fabric appears to be a little blurry at the edges, reminiscent of the reflection of a cloud in water. And therefore “abr” is a cloud.

The fabrics consist either of 100% cotton – and then they are called “boz” or from a mixture of silk and cotton – and then they are called “adras”.

We use both boz and adras, which is 80% silk and 20% cotton.