Ikat

Ikat is the traditional manufacturing process for silk fabrics that is native to Central Asia. The silk cocoons are thrown into boiling water and the silk thread is extracted from the opening cocoons. This is wrapped in strands and washed with soap and soda, which gives the white color.

The strands are then tied and dyed in a traditional multi-stage process. At the end, the strands are stretched on looms and woven into colorful fabrics with a single-colored weft.

In the Yodgorlik factory in Margilan in Uzbekistan, Ferghana Valley and in the Uyghur silk factory in the Jiya municipality near the city of Hotan on the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China, you can observe the complete production process of traditional ikat materials.