Hand Woven Sumba Hinggi Warp Ikat Tapestry Nassa Shells

We have accumulated a tremendous amount of unique collector pieces, art and textiles, throughout the years but my husband will be 70 soon and I am not much younger so we feel it is time for us to start selling pieces from our personal collection accumulated over the last 35 yrs to eventually move to smaller quarters and have less to worry about. Hard to let go though, especially at long ago prices! All our textiles come with research and photos and we have others available as well. We combine shipping to save you money

The Eastern Sumba  ikats such as this one bear motifs of bold, bright designs of people, animals and animistic totems while those of the west are more abstract.  Taking up to two years to produce, a full sized Sumba cloth is highly prized.

To create an ikat fabric, the artisan first stretches warp yarns on a frame, and binds selected areas with raffia.  The warp bundles are then dyed, producing resist patterns wherever the dye cannot penetrate. Then selected areas are unbound, other areas are bound, and the yarns are immersed in a second dye bath.  Finally, the bindings are removed, the warp yarns are placed on a simple backstrap loom, and the fabric is woven with a plain weft. Through this painstaking process, sophisticated textile art is produced with both drama and subtlety. 

Compare at $ 800.00, 900.00 & up, when you can find them on the internet, for such a piece.   

This stunning one of a kind handspun Ceremonial Warp 8 ft long Ikat runner was woven by hand on a narrow backstrap loom in a labor-intensive process and features motifs that are associated with royalty in East Sumba including deer, horses, crocodiles, geckoes, roosters and cockatoos, ducks are represented as well here.

These animal and plant designs alternate with geometric motifs and cultural symbols derived from the Sumbanese animistic religion.

This textile combines two traditional weaving methods, songket (embroidery) and ikat (the word “ikat” means “to bind”, it is a very ancient way of creating designs in fabric by resist-dyeing the threads before the fabric is woven) in natural indigo dies -red, purple & blue-).

The floating and supplementary warp techniques seen here create a rich tapestry-like effect. Due to the unique resist patterning, the part of this textile that is ikat looks the same on both sides of the fabric; there is no right side and wrong side to the cloth. In this case though, the borders that are songkets are different on each side.

In rare cases, such as on this piece, nassa shells are applied for an additional dimension and beauty to the right side of the songket natural cotton hand woven borders’ background:  the 6 large animal motifs on each side were entirely created with tiny nassa shells as seen on close up below.

Size of these unique runners runs around 8 ft long including the handtwisted fringes and 21 to 23” wide, it varies slightly with each one as each is handmade and one of a kind (textile 1).

Handspun Sumbanese textiles can take up to 2 years to weave and can command the same value as a water buffalo. The intricacies of this piece and the variety of color show the skill of a veteran Sumbanese weaver. This is a wonderful art form and the Sumbanese pride themselves greatly for their intricate and meaningful designs inspired by the merapu ancestral spirits, nature and animals. The weaving and wearing of these colorful textiles used to be the privilege of the nobility. These textiles fulfill several functions in Sumba society. As family heirlooms, they play a prominent role in the ritual exchange of gifts and, most important, in funeral rites.

We have Hand carved Textile Hanging Display Bars available  which were created by hand especially for these decorative textiles  in case you want to hang this precious collectable on the wall which creates a rich and outstanding designer look. 

To see pictures of our collection, go to this link below and scroll down till you get to the photos, there are a few pages of pictures & text for educational purposes that we were asked to place on this site and we add more weekly whenever we find time. You will find there photos of what we collect and sell on ebay regularely and the interesting stories behind these items we search for in remote areas of the world  http://tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=14409&forum=5 and if you want to see colorful artwork to get ideas, and ways to transform houses with no flair into Carribean hideways, check this link again on the same site for fun! http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=16503&forum=6&4