IKAT TEXTILES OF THE ANDES by Marguerite Gritli Pfyffer

Marguerite Gritli PFYFFER
IKAT TEXTILES OF THE ANDES
Edition reviewed and increased, September 2006
COLLECTION ENGLISH

Unabridged printable text
Weaving is probably the most complex native craft technology still enduring in the Andes. Using very simple tools and methods inherited from pre-Columbian times, some Andean weavers mentally conceive elaborate patterns on their warps before actually weaving : this ancient resist-dye technique is known worldwide as IKAT. It requires a deep knowledge of color and design combinations and offers infinite patterning opportunities on textiles. This book presents an exhaustive collection of the finest ikat textiles of the Andean countries since pre-Columbian times. Written by a cultural anthropologist specialized in South American textiles, it emphasizes the social and cultural diversity of the people who still practice ikat patterning.
It is the first ever-made sourcebook and insider's guide on the weaving of ikat textiles in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. This book not only describes the different processing steps of the ikat technique. It also deals with ikat's aesthetics, and reaches the Andean weavers' deeply rooted love for beauty, ethnic pride and vision of the Invisible. Due to its intricacy and time requirement in a world where 'time is money', even in the remotest part of the Cordillera, ikat is currently on the verge of extinction. This book is therefore an invaluable testimony on a remarkable tradition that is silently dying out.
Beautiful photographs, mostly never published before, illustrate the text. They are actually the "Ariadne's clew" prompting the text, and an appeal to the reader to stretch his imagination through time and space, to meet humble people in love with Life.

414 illustrations and 25 maps



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