I wrote a post recently about my love for ikat textiles and about how the slow death of ikat is not due to low demand but rather lack of supply. I couldn't understand why weavers would rather work in an office if there were takers for their textiles at higher prices. Last weekend I went to visit a few weavers to see for myself what was involved in the process and why my supplier was finding it harder to recruit weavers. Now, after my visit, I understand what my supplier is trying to say. The kind of laborious work that is involved in making ikat textiles is difficult and it calls for immense concentration. In comparison, an office job is seen as superior (plush, air-conditioned office and easier work for better pay) and with the potential for upward mobility. I'm not surprised- some of the work involved is plain tedious.
The Process
Step 1: The master weaver studies the design, and calculates where the yarn needs to be tie-dyed.
A Master Weaver is a title given to someone who understands every step in the ikat making process. Although every step in the process requires concentration and precision, the real mathematical work is done in the beginning, when deciding where the yarn is tied and dyed. For those who are new to ikat, it's a technique of weaving where the yarn is tie-dyed in a particular pattern in order to reveal a design once the yarn is woven into fabric.
Step 2: Before the tying begins, the yarn has to be collected into a length of 25 metres (length of one warp on these looms). The yarn is collected from different cones, and these yarns together make up the width of the fabric.
Step 3: After the yarn is marked by the master weaver, helpers (employed by the master weaver), sit down to tie the yarn. A thick rope of many yarns together is used for thin lines, and rubber is used for thick or wider white patches. Tying the yarn essentially ensures that this part of the yarn won't get dyed when the whole lot is dipped into a vat of colour. The tied parts are tied so tight that the liquid dye can't percolate through at these points.
Step 4: The yarn is tied and dyed repeatedly for different colours. For example, if the pattern above has to be replicated in blue and green, the yarn is first tied in all places that are eventually going to end up as either green or white. Then the yarn is dipped into a vat of blue dye.
Step 5: The yarn is dried, and then all parts that were dyed blue are now covered with rubber. The parts that are meant to be white stay covered, and the parts that are meant to be green are now uncovered.
Step 6: Then the yarn is dipped into a vat full of green dye, where the exposed yarn turns green. Finally, the yarn is dried and all the covered parts are untied.
Step 7: Once the yarn is completely dried, it is ready to be woven. This green and blue pattern is an example of warp ikat, where all the design is done in the warp yarn. The weft yarn is a single colour (which will change the intensity of the blue and green when it is woven- for example a white weft will make the colours seem less intense, a black weft will give the whole fabric a dark grey effect, etc).
Below is a photo I took of five men working on tying and dyeing a fabric I had ordered for the Summer 2012 collection. These men sit outside all day (sometimes without a fan) and just tie knots on yarn, and untie knots once the yarn is dyed and dried out. It's not so surprising now that some of them would rather work as a factory watchman - that's a lot less laborious and arguably, less monotonous too.
Step 8: The yarn is put on a frame that goes into a mechanized loom. On a mechanized loom, with fine yarn, it takes around 8 working hours to weave around 8 - 10 metres of fabric.
Notice how a different colour in the weft produces a different effect on the fabric colour. We experimented with different shades of grey, blue and green.
As if this entire process wasn't complicated enough, with precision required at every stage; it gets more complex if you want a warp and weft ikat design. In the design above, the ikat work is done on the warp and the weft yarn is a single colour (which means no tie-dyeing was done to the weft yarn). But what if the design calls for a warp and weft design with completely contrasting colours showing up on the fabric? The tying and dyeing has to be done on both the warp and weft yarn.
Below is an example of warp and weft ikat. The design is a black background with white circles. If this was done only as a warp design, the circles would be a muted grey if you used a black weft yarn, and the background would be a muted grey if you used a weft white yarn. A warp and weft ikat design ("double ikat" as it is often called) gives you complete colour saturation at a particular area in the motif.
Steps 1 through 7 are the same for double ikat as they are for single ikat, although the steps are carried out separately with different sets of measurements. Weavers and their employees need to be clever about their work so they aren't stuck all day doing redundant work. For the design below, the tying and dyeing is done for a semi-circle, and then unfolded, width-wise, to reveal a full circle (mirror image of the first semi circle).
Step 8 for double ikat: It's the weaving that really makes double ikat a much slower process. Weavers have to pay very careful attention to the alignment of the yarn (where weft meets warp) because a misalignment in one place could lead to a blur in the design throughout the fabric. For the fabric below, it takes this weaver a whole day of work to weaver 2.5 metres.
Every 5 inches, the bobbin, containing the weft yarn, needs to be changed. The yarn on the bobbin has already been tie-dyed and the order of the bobbins are crucial to the outcome of the design.
Another weaver weavers a black fabric with squares in different colours. When he weaves the section between each row of coloured squares, he uses a bobbin with plain black thread and the weaving goes faster. But when he weaves the rows with squares, he checks the yarn alignment every time his shuttles goes from left to right and again when it goes from right to left. His feet are in a pit (hence the name, pitloom), pushing pedals that raise every alternate yarn so that the weft can be woven into the fabric. He pushes ones and pulls the rope hanging in the centre. The rope shoots the shuttle across from right to left. He adjustts the yarn, and then he presses the other pedal and pulls the rope again. He repeats this for several hours in a day to get 1.5 metres of woven fabric.
I wish there was a simple way to invent a machine that could take care of the tying and dyeing, because that is the real drudgery and monotony behind ikat making. The mathematics behind the design and the placement of the motif and the beauty of the woven fabric coming together will not be taken away if the tying and dyeing is mechanized. But as with many ideas, it's the implementation that difficult. Who will invent this machine, how long will it take, and how much would it cost?
This trip to Koyyalaguden, the village in Andhra where these photos were taken, was fun and interesting because I got to see fabric being made after having read about it for years. And my host was Mr. Shankar, my ikat fabric supplier in Hyderabad who comes from a family of weavers and who really loves the craft. Shankar sounded so sad when he was trying to explain why no one is willing to do some of the complicated ikat designs anymore. He put up with my naive urban understanding of the situation and my desire to turn the whole process into an assembly line. How tiring it must be to explain this to buyer after buyer, tourist after tourist. Why would this economy not have better opportunities other than sitting and tying knots all day? It certainly is something to think about next time someone with an urban education scoffs at the thought of choosing a call centre job over weaving. In my Shankar's words, "When we cannot convince our own children to join the family business, how can we say anything about the weavers' families? Weaving is seen as something very inferior".
Click here to view the entire "Making of Ikat" album on Facebook.
The Process
Step 1: The master weaver studies the design, and calculates where the yarn needs to be tie-dyed.
A Master Weaver is a title given to someone who understands every step in the ikat making process. Although every step in the process requires concentration and precision, the real mathematical work is done in the beginning, when deciding where the yarn is tied and dyed. For those who are new to ikat, it's a technique of weaving where the yarn is tie-dyed in a particular pattern in order to reveal a design once the yarn is woven into fabric.
Step 2: Before the tying begins, the yarn has to be collected into a length of 25 metres (length of one warp on these looms). The yarn is collected from different cones, and these yarns together make up the width of the fabric.
Step 3: After the yarn is marked by the master weaver, helpers (employed by the master weaver), sit down to tie the yarn. A thick rope of many yarns together is used for thin lines, and rubber is used for thick or wider white patches. Tying the yarn essentially ensures that this part of the yarn won't get dyed when the whole lot is dipped into a vat of colour. The tied parts are tied so tight that the liquid dye can't percolate through at these points.
Step 4: The yarn is tied and dyed repeatedly for different colours. For example, if the pattern above has to be replicated in blue and green, the yarn is first tied in all places that are eventually going to end up as either green or white. Then the yarn is dipped into a vat of blue dye.
Step 5: The yarn is dried, and then all parts that were dyed blue are now covered with rubber. The parts that are meant to be white stay covered, and the parts that are meant to be green are now uncovered.
Step 6: Then the yarn is dipped into a vat full of green dye, where the exposed yarn turns green. Finally, the yarn is dried and all the covered parts are untied.
Step 7: Once the yarn is completely dried, it is ready to be woven. This green and blue pattern is an example of warp ikat, where all the design is done in the warp yarn. The weft yarn is a single colour (which will change the intensity of the blue and green when it is woven- for example a white weft will make the colours seem less intense, a black weft will give the whole fabric a dark grey effect, etc).
Below is a photo I took of five men working on tying and dyeing a fabric I had ordered for the Summer 2012 collection. These men sit outside all day (sometimes without a fan) and just tie knots on yarn, and untie knots once the yarn is dyed and dried out. It's not so surprising now that some of them would rather work as a factory watchman - that's a lot less laborious and arguably, less monotonous too.
Step 8: The yarn is put on a frame that goes into a mechanized loom. On a mechanized loom, with fine yarn, it takes around 8 working hours to weave around 8 - 10 metres of fabric.
Notice how a different colour in the weft produces a different effect on the fabric colour. We experimented with different shades of grey, blue and green.
As if this entire process wasn't complicated enough, with precision required at every stage; it gets more complex if you want a warp and weft ikat design. In the design above, the ikat work is done on the warp and the weft yarn is a single colour (which means no tie-dyeing was done to the weft yarn). But what if the design calls for a warp and weft design with completely contrasting colours showing up on the fabric? The tying and dyeing has to be done on both the warp and weft yarn.
Below is an example of warp and weft ikat. The design is a black background with white circles. If this was done only as a warp design, the circles would be a muted grey if you used a black weft yarn, and the background would be a muted grey if you used a weft white yarn. A warp and weft ikat design ("double ikat" as it is often called) gives you complete colour saturation at a particular area in the motif.
Steps 1 through 7 are the same for double ikat as they are for single ikat, although the steps are carried out separately with different sets of measurements. Weavers and their employees need to be clever about their work so they aren't stuck all day doing redundant work. For the design below, the tying and dyeing is done for a semi-circle, and then unfolded, width-wise, to reveal a full circle (mirror image of the first semi circle).
Step 8 for double ikat: It's the weaving that really makes double ikat a much slower process. Weavers have to pay very careful attention to the alignment of the yarn (where weft meets warp) because a misalignment in one place could lead to a blur in the design throughout the fabric. For the fabric below, it takes this weaver a whole day of work to weaver 2.5 metres.
Every 5 inches, the bobbin, containing the weft yarn, needs to be changed. The yarn on the bobbin has already been tie-dyed and the order of the bobbins are crucial to the outcome of the design.
Another weaver weavers a black fabric with squares in different colours. When he weaves the section between each row of coloured squares, he uses a bobbin with plain black thread and the weaving goes faster. But when he weaves the rows with squares, he checks the yarn alignment every time his shuttles goes from left to right and again when it goes from right to left. His feet are in a pit (hence the name, pitloom), pushing pedals that raise every alternate yarn so that the weft can be woven into the fabric. He pushes ones and pulls the rope hanging in the centre. The rope shoots the shuttle across from right to left. He adjustts the yarn, and then he presses the other pedal and pulls the rope again. He repeats this for several hours in a day to get 1.5 metres of woven fabric.
I wish there was a simple way to invent a machine that could take care of the tying and dyeing, because that is the real drudgery and monotony behind ikat making. The mathematics behind the design and the placement of the motif and the beauty of the woven fabric coming together will not be taken away if the tying and dyeing is mechanized. But as with many ideas, it's the implementation that difficult. Who will invent this machine, how long will it take, and how much would it cost?
This trip to Koyyalaguden, the village in Andhra where these photos were taken, was fun and interesting because I got to see fabric being made after having read about it for years. And my host was Mr. Shankar, my ikat fabric supplier in Hyderabad who comes from a family of weavers and who really loves the craft. Shankar sounded so sad when he was trying to explain why no one is willing to do some of the complicated ikat designs anymore. He put up with my naive urban understanding of the situation and my desire to turn the whole process into an assembly line. How tiring it must be to explain this to buyer after buyer, tourist after tourist. Why would this economy not have better opportunities other than sitting and tying knots all day? It certainly is something to think about next time someone with an urban education scoffs at the thought of choosing a call centre job over weaving. In my Shankar's words, "When we cannot convince our own children to join the family business, how can we say anything about the weavers' families? Weaving is seen as something very inferior".
Click here to view the entire "Making of Ikat" album on Facebook.
