Ikat Fabric Pair of Handmade Pillows in Uzbekistan

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Pair of handmade pillows in Ikat fabric; the top side is silk velvet with vibrant colors and geometric patterns, and the back is white silk with shaded black designs. The two pillows have different designs from each other and are unique and one-of-a-kind pieces. They were made between 2005 and 2009 in small craft workshops in southern Uzbekistan with “baghmal” a thick and soft silk velvet ikat. Ikat (the meaning of the term in Uzbek is “cloud”), is a technique of dyeing yarn, which allows for beautiful designs with blurred contours; originally born in Malaysia and Indonesia, it has since developed independently in many different cultures and continents, such as Peru and Guatemala, Japan, Yemen, India and Uzbekistan. The term” ikat” is Indonesian (“mengikat”) and means to knot, to bind, because some parts of the yarns are protected by tight binding so as not to be dyed, while the unbound parts are dyed. This results in a yarn that is only partially dyed, which when fabricated reveals an animated decorative design. The procedure is very time-consuming, as well as very complex, so much so that it requires considerable skill, which is precisely why within the cultures that produced them, “ikats” were typically status symbols. India and Indonesia have their own ancient traditions of ikat fabric making, however, it is the ikat fabrics of Uzbekistan that have become a recent success in the fashion and interior design industries for their big, bold designs and for mixing unimaginable ikat colors. Today, ikat is the national fabric of Uzbekistan, where it is produced mostly in the southern region, in the cities of Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Khiva, and the city of Kokand in the Ferghana Valley; from 1960 to 1990 to the present day many traditional textile skills and techniques that had been neglected for years were revived, in part due to the state incentive of not charging taxes to artisans who produce manually. Fabrics were already being produced in Uzbekistan before the country was conquered by Charlemagne in 329 B.C., and the country’s trade economy has always been flourishing thanks to the rich merchant trades involving it: the fascinating, mysterious and legendary “Silk Road” passed through Uzbekistan! The pillows are in excellent condition. Measurements width cm50, height cm.25 depth cm.16. For all the shipments we use special packaging materials (wooden crates, styrofoam, etc.) for maximum protection and safety of the objects.