Pair of handmade cushions in Ikat fabric; the upper side is in silk velvet with brown tone colors and geometric decorations, the back is in white silk with orange geometric pattern. The two cushions are unique and unrepeatable pieces, they were made between 2005 and 2009 in small workshops in southern Uzbekistan with thick and soft "baghmal" silk velvet. Ikat (the meaning of the term in Uzbek is "cloud"), is a yarn dyeing technique, which allows you to obtain beautiful designs with soft edges; originally born in Malaysia and Indonesia, it then developed autonomously 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 tie, because some parts of the yarns are protected by a tight binding so as not to be dyed, while the unbound parts are colored. The result is a partially colored yarn, which once woven reveals an animated decorative motif. The process is very time-consuming, as well as very complex, so much so as to require considerable skill, and it is precisely for this reason that within the cultures that produced them, the "ikat" were typically status symbols. India and Indonesia have their ancient traditions of making ikat fabrics, however, it is the ikat fabrics of Uzbekistan that have become a recent hit in the fashion and interior design industry for their large and bold and for mixing unimaginable ikat colors. Today ikat is the national fabric of Uzbekistan, where it is mainly produced in the southern region, in the cities of Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Khiva, and in the city of Kokand in the Ferghana valley; from 1960 to 1990 until today many traditional textile skills and techniques that had been neglected for years have been brought back to life, also thanks to the state incentive not to charge taxes to artisans who produce manually. In Uzbekistan, fabrics were produced even before the conquest of the country by Charlemagne in 329 BC. and the country's commercial economy has always been prosperous thanks to the rich trade that involved it: Uzbekistan passed the fascinating, mysterious and legendary "Silk Road".
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SILVER Seller in Prato, Italy
