Traditional Handicrafts
beauty of art & quality
PASHMINA GOATS IN LADAKH
Also called CAPRA HIRCUS GOAT
They are pet goats and owned by local people of LADAKH
now the procedure begins to make PASHMINA Shawls
The Pashmina fleece is the finest raw material of the wool which is 14 times finer than human hair produced by the Himalayan goats living on the high Himalayan range in LADAKH at the altitude of 3500 meter or higher above the sea level.
Mostly in summers the owners of the goats trim or comb the fleece from the goats and supply to the people who bring it to SRINAGAR (CAPITAL OF J&K) where artisans make PASHMINA SHAWLS from this super fine fleece.
Here is the first step of the Pashmina making and the procedure starts with SPINNING of the fleece into finest yarn traditionally for centuries in the capital of Kashmir called Srinagar.
Gluing process is one of the important process before the PASHMINA strings are taken onto hand loom for weaving. Without gluing strings are not strong enough for weaving . The glue is natural without any chemical content which is washed out after the completion of the shawl.
Next step is threading using metallic sticks to shape the strings and then spread it into desired size as picture shown on the right.
Finally after all these procedures weaving takes place in this step and every artisan is specialized in making various designs, sizes. & colors.
At once 1 - 6 shawls can be woven in one go later separated as for 1 shawl it takes nearly 10 days only for weaving.
The width of the standard HAND LOOM is limited to 150 cm maximum therefore shawls cannot be more than 150 cm in width and the length up to 10 meter.
Needle Art Embroidery
Moving to next level of beauty of art and great artisans of Kashmir valley producing master pieces of Pashmina shawls with intricate embroidery in various designs and styles, as shown in the pictures on left.
Pashmina shawls are printed temporarily with these by the wooden blocks to be embroidered.
When embroidery is done temporary print is washed out and embroidery remains.
Chalk powder mixed with natural glue is used for printing.
Moving to next technique
KANI Art
Kani is one of the very unique & special techniques in the creation of Pahmina shawls and has nowadays very important role in designs due to high demand in India and partially rest of the world.
Kani (pencil stick) art creates mostly floral and other designs within the Pashmina shawl by using pencil sticks to pass the thread through the strings shown in the photo.
It nearly takes 7 months to make floral design on the shawl of the dimension 1x2m by one person with average time of 8 hours a day,and varies depending upon design and size of the shawl.
Once again i would like to mention beauty of art & quality.
This combination of KANI (as art) and PASHMINA WOOL (as best quality wool) makes it precious,unique and luxurious created in the valley of Kashmir by specialized artisans.
Naveed Ahmad Wani (artisan shown in the photo) one of the great artist produces wonderful designs for Kashmir Treasuries.
Handloom for Pashmina weaving
Hand weaving Pashmina shawl/scarf
Hand-spinning Pashmina wool
Weighing Pashmina fleece
Finest handspun Pashmina yarn
