Indonesian textiles: Timor ikats
Backstrap loom weaving is found among numerous cultures worldwide. A technique by which fiber is woven into long narrow strips has been practiced by man for more than two thousand years, but around the Indonesian archipelago weavers have taken backstrap loom weaving to the next level, namely in terms of creating designs by resist-dyeing the threads before the fabric is woven. Fabric created in this fashion is known as ikat. The expression “ikat” literally means “to tie or to bind,” and Indonesia is an ikat kingdom.
No matter where one travels in the archipelago, textile production has always been an inherent part of each household’s activities. As cloth has been produced predominantly for one’s personal use, whether to be used as wrap-around, sarong, head cloth, blanket or for ceremonial occasions, each family typically developed its own style. Although many families produced exceptional patterns and their weaving displayed unique signature style designs, most weavers of a specific village area used same dyes and repeated certain patterns by which one could identify their home village when they’d be seen around regional markets traveling away from home.
Nowhere else one can find such a rich variety of textiles clearly identifiable by the village area where the weavers come from than in Timor, the easternmost of the eastern Nusa Tenggara islands of the Indonesian archipelago. Village areas of West Timor and East Timor such as Biboki, Manulea, Haufoo, Maubesi, Subun, Nurobo, Eban and Nikiniki carry each a unique ikat style native to the respective villages where they’ve been produced for generations.
All of the eastern Nusa Tenggara islands, namely Sabu, Flores, Sumba, Timor and Rote, are famous for their outstanding warp ikats, referring to main threads being tied and dyed. To tie-dye weft threads is not as common throughout the archipelago though it is found (mostly in Sumatra and Bali), as is a double ikat where both the warp and the weft threads are tie-dyed before weaving. While classical weft ikat of gold or silver metallic brocading is generally not found in Timor, nor elsewhere in Nusa Tenggara, a supplementary weft thread ikat, a technique where an additional weft thread is woven into the cloth to produce a surface decoration, specifically warp-ikat with sungket style weft-wrapping, is found in Timor.