Incredible Ikat from Flores

Soft vintage ikat scarf

A lovely soft scarf which has been made from an old traditional sarong. We bought this piece from a lady with a small stall on the road to N'Gela. She buys up old sarongs from her neighbours, cuts off the worn out parts and hems them into fringed scarves. Beautifully soft texture to make an awesome scarf.

Size: 24 x 29 x 124 cms excluding fringes at both ends

Colours: Black, chestnut brown and beige

Soft ikat scarf from Ende

A lovely wide soft scarf made from an old traditonal sarong with ancient horse designs. I bought this one from a woman selling from her small stall on the streets of Ende's market.

Size: 54 x 140  cms (including short fringes)

Colours: deep rich chestnut brown with cream and terracotta natural dyes

Natural dyed hanging from N'Dona

A beautiful piece bought from the N'Dona women's ikat co-operative a village on the outskirts of Ende. The weavers here use only natural plant dyes for their work. This one uses vegetable indigo, morinda citrifolia root and mangrove bark. It has lovely finished ends with  chain stitching

Size: 25 x 154 cms (excluding fringes)

Colours: indigo blue, white, deep chestnut red and rich deep brown

Natural dye wall hanging from N'Dona

Beautiful fine ikat hanging we bought from a women's weavers co-operative in the village of N'Dona near Ende in Flores. This textile is a lovely example of traditional ikat patterns and wonderful organic natural dyes. Good enough to hang on your wall!

Colours: beautiful, deep indigo blue, and rich chestnut red browns. All yarns are dyed using natural plant dyes (including morinda and indigo)

Size: 36 x 150 cms. (excluding fringes)

Moth design sarong from N'Gela

An incredibly finely woven traditional ikat sarong. This lovely soft  cotton piece has been woven in three pieces and hand stitched together to make a woman's skirt tube which can be worn in a variety of ways.

The heavy cotton gives this sarong a wonderful drape and weight. The two outer panels are identical and the middle one has a design of butterflies or moths

Size: 142 x 160 cms (if opened out)

Colours: Deep natural dyes of mengkudu root (morinda citrifolia), and mangrove bark.

Mama Katerina's ceremonial indigo ikat

 An amazing piece of indigo ikat bought from the maker herself, Mama Katerina in the Bajawa region of Flores. This ikat cloth is made to wear as part of community rituals. The cloth is woven in three separate sections which have been hand stitched together to form a tube garment.

Colours: indigo blue with white motifs.

Red, orange and white ceramic beads and tiny cowrie shells form a design of crabs and a central motif of a figure in a sailing boat. Pieces like this (called Lawo Buto) are only worn at the most important rituals and never for everyday wear. Mama Katerina kindly offered to show me how it is worn. For my blog on this experience, have a look at  "A ceremonial ikat from Mama Khaterina"

Size: 150 x 170 cms (opened size)

More Ikat from Flores here

Flores ikat with cowries

A piece bought from the ladies at Lawolewok, a village near Larantuka on the eastern tip of Flores. This narrow piece which would look great hung on the wall is made from hand spun and hand woven cotton, natural dyes and has 7 tiny flowers sewn from 4 cowrie shells each

Size: 13 x 110 cms (excluding the plaited fringes)

Colours: rich aubergine and ivory