Ikat Cushion Cover · Silk velvet · Red

A silk velvet ikat cushion cover, hand-dyed in Margilan, Uzbekistan, by master dyer Aziz Murtazaev, using 'abrbandi' - a UNESCO-listed Intangible Cultural Heritage resist-dyeing technique. A geometric pattern sits against a madder red field, the design already present in the yarn before the weaving on a traditional loom begins. Woven into velvet, the pattern takes on depth, the pile catching and holding colour differently depending on the light.

The Craft. The pattern on this cushion cover is created using abrbandi - the resist-dyeing technique behind Uzbek silk ikat. From abr (cloud), abrbandi is said to have been born when a master dyer, watching clouds break apart on the surface of still water, tried to bind that fractured, drifting edge into thread. Before weaving, sections of silk thread are bound tightly by hand with fibre that resists dye. Where the binding holds, the thread stays undyed; where it doesn't, colour penetrates. Once the bindings are removed and the thread dyed, the pattern already exists in the yarn - it only becomes visible once the threads are stretched and woven on the loom. Producing a length of ikat fabric involves roughly 37 distinct stages, from raising silkworms and reeling silk from the cocoons through to binding, dyeing and weaving. Each stage is handled by a different specialist, so no single weaver completes a piece alone.

The Heritage. Silk has moved through the oasis cities of now Uzbekistan for the better part of two thousand years. Legend holds that the first cocoons reached the Fergana Valley hidden inside the hollow staves of travelling monks, smuggled out of a China that fiercely guarded the secret of silk. By the tenth century, Margilan was already written of as a city of silk, and its weavers were sending khan-atlas - a shot silk prized for the way its colours shift with the light - down the caravan routes to Baghdad, Kashgar, Egypt and beyond. Covering alcoves or draped over bedding, the prestigious ikat fabrics became fashionable in the 19^th century, when the designs turned vibrant and elaborate, and new weave structures, like satin and velvet, were introduced. The 20^th century nearly ended the craft. Under Soviet rule, many of Margilan's master dyers and weavers were exiled, and abrbandi came close to being lost along with them. It survived, and in 2017 UNESCO inscribed Uzbekistan's abr silk-making on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The Maker. Born in Margilan, in the Fergana Valley, Aziz Murtazaev did not train in a family workshop, but studied languages and business. He worked for a time in finance in London, and went back to Margilan for reasons closer to the dye vats than the ledger. It is colour that holds him. He works with what the valley grows and yields - madder root, pomegranate rind, walnut shell, indigo - steeping silk thread until it takes the exact red or blue he is after. Along the way he has brought back methods Margilan had mostly set down: block printing by hand, and the old finishing of silk with egg white, a technique few dyers still bother with. Aziz leads Marikat, a cooperative of independent ikat masters, dyers and weavers dedicated to the preservation of traditional craftsmanship and cultural values, and their transfer to the next generation. Aziz’s work carries the UNESCO Seal of Excellence for Handicraft Products.