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Playable heritage game

Ikat Pattern Dyeing

Also known as Ikat · Abr

Ikat is a way of patterning cloth by dyeing the threads before weaving: bundles of warp are bound tightly where the dye must not reach, dipped, re-bound and dipped again, so the design appears, softly feathered at its edges, only as the cloth is woven.

Play the previewAbout this tradition
Ikat Pattern Dyeing: photograph by Panpanchik
Photo: Panpanchik, CC BY-SA 4.0, source on Wikimedia Commons
Ikat Pattern Dyeing: the game in attract modeLive previewPlay

Runs in your browser, works offline once loaded.

How to play

  1. Choose a dye colour and a pattern shape from the strip under the warp.
  2. Tap a square to dye it: the same shape appears on the matching squares across the cloth.
  3. Copy the small chart above the warp, then press Check.
Rules at a glance
  • The cloth is a mirror image left to right and top to bottom, as in many banded warp cloths.
  • A square counts only when its pattern shape and its dye colour both match the chart.
  • Three stars need a nearly perfect copy; you can undo or clear as often as you like.

About the tradition

Resist-dyed warp cloth is made in many parts of the world, among them Indonesia, India, Central Asia, Japan and the Americas. In places such as Sumba, weavers still bind and dye indigo and red threads by hand before the loom is set up.

Origins

A living tradition passed from person to person; it is not tied to a single dated origin. It belongs to the cultural world of Persia, Caucasus and Central Asia.

Credits

Sources

Get the app

Ikat Pattern Dyeing is one of 17 textile crafts in the Textile Crafts of the World app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Submitted to the App Store and Google Play; in review. Store links appear here the day it goes live. One app, many traditions, no account needed.

See all 17 textile crafts in the app

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