Ikat

From the Malay mengikat, to tie: a thread bound, dyed and only then woven. Ikat is that technique, in which the pattern emerges blurred and feathered on the loom. Silk ikat from Uzbekistan, the abr or cloud cloth of Bukhara and the Fergana Valley, is known for saturated red, yellow and violet; cotton ikat comes from Indonesia, India and Southeast Asia. As pillows, often paired with suzani fronts, ikat brings a soft-edged pattern to a sofa, a window seat or a bed in a garden room. The blur, as it turns out, is the design.