In Indonesian and Malay ikat means to knot. Two sets of knots are used to produce the three-color design. All knots resist the initial indigo dye and only unknotted areas become blue. Opening the second set of knots reveals sections of thread that have received neither dye and will be yellow in the woven textile. The initial eggshell-yellow is from kemiri nut oil.
Indigo blue is an aqueous solution of the young leaves of the leguminous indigofera tinctoria plant.
The bark of the roots of the morinda citrifolia tree are used to form a red dye which is also aqueous. Dye lots are stored for many years while waiting for these colors to mature. Even though the warp and weft patterns are tied independently on separate frames, great care is taken to ensure that both patterns will exactly coincide during weaving. The weaving itself is done on a continuous-warp backstrap loom. The arrangement of the warp on the loom, around the breast and warp beams, replicates its orientation on the warping frame and recreates the intended pattern.