British researchers David and Sue Richardson will lead a cruise tour for Asian textile enthusiasts with a love of adventure and Indonesian ikat around the Lesser Sunda Islands in Eastern Indonesia.
The tour will begin from May 8 and end on May 19, 2014 and will visit local village dyers and weavers.
The diverse Lesser Sundas Islands, stretching eastwards from Bali, offer a glorious cornucopia of weaving for textile lovers. Here, women not only continue to make their traditional cloth on back-tension looms, but continue to wear it as well.
There is kaleidoscopic variety of patterns and designs - every region of every island has its own unique textile culture, its own style of dress, and its own motifs. While the warp ikat technique is almost universal, some weavers use weft ikat, supplementary weft, and even twinning.
The tour will explore every stage of the weaving process, from spinning the cotton, tying the threads, dyeing using local natural dyes - especially indigo and morinda - and weaving the cloth.
Along the way there will be time to enjoy the amazing volcanic scenery, meet local villagers, visit traditional markets, buy local textiles, swim and snorkel over pristine coral, relax and have fun.
David and Sue Richardson have a special passion for Indonesian textiles and have travelled to almost every part of the archipelago during the past twenty-five years.
