Ikat

There is a type of weaving called Ikat (the Japanese term) that is done in an incredible number of different communities. I have seen it in textiles from throughout Central Asia, Burma, Indonesia, Japan, and Turkey. It is also here in Ecuador. In it you dye threads in a pattern before using them to weave. Generally it is the warp that is dyed, but in Burma I saw some cloth where both warp and weft had been predyed. The traditional Japanese Ikat has every warp thread predyed, but most other Ikat seems to intersperse the predyed threads with plain threads. Ecuadorian Ikat also intersperses threads from different dyeing so that the cloth is more colourful. They also use wool, cotton or silk, whereas other Ikat I have seen is only for cotton or silk (mainly silk because the technique is much more labour intensive).

Today was the first time I have seen Ikat being made from start to finish. The Ecuadorians wrap the threads with Abbas (not sure I have the spelling right but it is a fibre used to make special cloth in some parts of the world), and then dye the warp in what they say are traditional dyes. They showed us some dye pots with an acacia seed, black walnut, cochineal, moss and a rock as well as indigo. The indigo probably wasn't real indigo, as it is supposed to be yellow until it is exposed to air. It also comes from Colombia, as do the walnuts.

They use a back strap loom for Ikat. The knots don't go as far as the end of the warp threads, so they have a long fringe of only one colour. This is then knotted in an intricate knotting technique that seems to be only done in this region - I haven't seen any other Ikat with the knotting. We were shown some shawls that had pictures very finely knotted for about a foot after the Ikat had finished. This level of expertise is limited to only one lady currently, but she is trying to pass it on. They also make Rya rugs and slubbed plain cloth (possibly from Abbas) that is used in gold panning.

The Ikat was done at a village about an hour away. We then went to another village close by, where there were an enormous number of jewellery shops, and everyone else spent hours looking at jewellery.

I probably haven't talked about gold panning before, but on every river and stream that flows into the Amazon there are people gold panning. Women and children do it manually, while the occasional man is in a boat with an engine to do it more mechanically.