The craft
Seven ways of making a Kashmiri shawl.
Every piece in the ledger is built using one — sometimes two or three — of the techniques below. Knowing the difference is half the pleasure.
01 · kaniTechnique
Kani — woven
The woven pattern.
Kani is twill-tapestry weaving, done on a loom with kani — small wooden bobbins, sometimes a hundred and fifty of them, each one carrying a different colour. A row of cloth is a row of bobbins, moved one by one across the warp. The weaver reads from a talim, a coded notation. About one centimetre of finished cloth a day.
Twill-tapestry weave done with hundreds of small wooden bobbins, one knot at a time. Months, sometimes years, per piece.
See Kani pieces⟶
02 · sozniTechnique
Sozni — embroidered
The needle’s pattern.
Sozni is the finest needlework Kashmir makes — a single fine thread, often silk, embroidered onto a pashmina ground. Worked from both sides so that the pattern shows on the front and a near-perfect mirror appears on the reverse. A sozni jaal — an all-over net — can take a year or more.
The finest needlework Kashmir makes — a single thread carrying entire gardens around the borders of a shawl.
See Sozni pieces⟶
03 · jamawarTechnique
Jamawar — long shawl
The long shawl.
Jamawar is a long shawl — historically a Mughal-court textile, often given as a robe of honour. Woven on a deep loom, frequently patterned end to end. The word originally meant ‘robe-length’. Today the term is used both for the form and for the heavy patterned weave that came to be associated with it.
The long shawl, woven on a deep loom, often patterned end to end. Historically a Mughal-court textile.
See Jamawar pieces⟶
04 · aariTechnique
Aari — hook chain-stitch
The hook’s pattern.
Aari is chain-stitch embroidery worked with a hooked needle. Faster than sozni and with a different visual rhythm — looped, continuous, flowing. Aari is the technique behind much of the flower work seen on Kashmiri stoles and on the bridal jackets known as phirans.
A hooked needle, a chain stitch, and a confident hand. The technique behind much of Kashmir's flower work.
See Aari pieces⟶05 · tillaTechnique
Tilla — gold thread
The gold thread.
Tilla is metallic thread — historically gilt silver, today often silver-plated copper — couched onto pashmina with a fine needle. The thread does not pierce the cloth in the usual sense; it is held in place by a second, finer thread that stitches over it. Ceremonial weight, bridal colour.
Metallic gold or silver thread, couched onto pashmina with a needle. Bridal weight, ceremonial colour.
See Tilla pieces⟶
06 · kalamkariTechnique
Kalamkari — hand-painted
The hand-painted pattern.
Rare. A reed pen and natural pigment, applied directly to the pashmina ground. The colour is set with a mild mordant and the design is often finished with a fine sozni outline so that the painted areas stay where the artist intended. We do not produce many of these.
A reed pen, ink, and patient hands — the rare hand-painted pashmina, finished with delicate embroidery.
See Kalamkari pieces⟶
07 · plainTechnique
Plain Pashmina
No pattern at all.
The cloth itself — Changthangi pashmina, hand-spun on a yinder, hand-woven on a four-shaft loom, finished and dyed in natural pigments. The work of a plain pashmina is invisible until you put it on; then it is the only thing you feel.
No pattern. Just the cloth itself — Changthangi pashmina, hand-spun and hand-woven, dyed only in natural pigments.
See Plain Pashmina pieces⟶A short dictionary
The names we use for the patterns
Persian-derived, mostly. The vocabulary is small; the combinations are not.
- بوٹا Buta
- The paisley — a teardrop with a curled tip. The single most recognisable Kashmiri motif.
- چنار Chinar
- The plane tree of Kashmir, palmate, gold in autumn.
- بیل Bel
- The vine — a running pattern along the edge of a piece, never quite repeating.
- جال Jaal
- The net — an all-over pattern filling the entire ground of the cloth.
- حاشیہ Hashia
- The border — a strip of ornament along the long edges of a shawl.
- پلہ Palla
- The end-border — heavier, more elaborate. Where the design announces itself.
- محراب Mehraab
- The arch — a single arched motif at the centre, framed by borders. Often bridal.
- گلکار Gulkar
- The garden — a dense, identifiable floral, painted or embroidered.
Materials
What goes into a piece
Changthangi pashmina
The under-coat of the Capra hircus goat of the Changthang plateau in Ladakh, at fourteen-to-seventeen thousand feet. Combed off by hand in spring. No animal is killed or shorn for pashmina.
Silk floss
Used for embroidery in sozni and aari. We use mulberry silk, undyed when possible, dyed in natural pigments otherwise.
Tilla — gilt thread
Historically gilt silver, today often silver-plated copper-and-silk core. Couched onto the cloth rather than stitched through.
Natural dyes
Walnut hull for browns, indigo for blues, saffron for warm yellow, madder root for dried-rose, pomegranate skin for soft gold, lac for deep reds, henna for the greens.
And then there is the longer story.
We’ve written more about authenticity, care, and the journey from goat to garment in the journal. Begin with these: