When designs are so small and spaced so closely together, tieing resists by hand becomes impossible. First a small bundle of silk weft yarns are very tightly woven with cotton warp threads. Sandwiched between the cotton warps, the silk weft yarns are resisted. These are then dyed a couple of times in iron rich mud, rinsed, and dried. The cotton warps are cut to free the silk threads.
Additional colors can then be over-dyed on top by hand.
Once dyeing processes are finished, the dyed silk weft is then woven a second time with silk warp threads which have been prepared in the same fashion. These twice woven ikat are only woven in silk on Amami Island and in Kagoshima Prefecture. The portions of weft and warp threads which will form the design, are tightly bound with a pliable resist. Traditionally the inner bark of the hemp plant was used. Cotton thread is wrapped by a machine to resist yarns on many ikats.