Peter ten Hoopen began collecting and studying Indonesian ikat in the late 1970s. He has curated two exhibitions of his textiles in Europe and one in Hong Kong, and published five books on the subject, including Ikat Textiles of the Indonesian Archipelago, the first reference work on the subject. His most recent is Ikat from Timor and its Outer Islands: Insular and Interwoven, a design-technical study which covers a dozen islands in the eastern archipelago.