Fibre, yarn, loom and needle. Many hands and a few simple tools carry a shawl from raw pashm to the finished piece.
Embroiderers at work, a weaver at the loom, and the thread that feeds them both.
The usual route from fibre to finished cloth. The details change from piece to piece.
Pashm is gathered from the fine undercoat of pashmina-producing goats during seasonal shedding. The coarse outer hair and fine down are still mixed at this point.
The raw fibre is opened and sorted so coarse hair, dust, and plant matter can be separated from the fine down prepared for spinning.
A spinner draws the cleaned fibre into yarn and controls its twist by touch. A yinder is one traditional hand-operated wheel associated with this work.
Yarn may be dyed before weaving or before it is used for surface work. Colour preparation depends on the intended textile and the practice of the makers involved.
Warp and weft are brought together on a handloom. In Kani tapestry weaving, small kanis carry coloured wefts while a talim guides the pattern sequence.
When embroidery is part of the textile, it is worked after the base cloth is woven. Sozni uses a fine needle to build surface motifs that may include the curved boteh form.
The cloth is washed, dried, and finished according to the textile and local practice. A purzgar is a specialist associated with cleaning and refining the woven surface.
The finished textile is opened and checked across its surface and edges. Any further correction depends on the object, its condition, and the standards of the makers involved.
Woven pattern, needlework, pattern across the whole cloth, and the fibre itself.
The pattern is woven into the cloth with small wooden kanis.
Kani pattern is made as the shawl is woven. Coloured wefts are carried across the loom on small wooden bobbins called kanis, while a talim, a coded pattern notation, guides the design row by row.
See the Kani collectionFine needlework added by hand after the cloth is woven.
Sozni uses a fine needle and separate thread to build pattern on woven pashmina. The design is printed onto the cloth first, then filled stitch by stitch, from a few sprigs to vines that cover the whole shawl.
See the Sozni collection
Pattern that covers the whole body of the shawl.
Jama pieces carry their pattern across the whole cloth rather than at the borders. The richest are embroidered edge to edge in the jamawar manner; others are woven all over in blocks, stripes and ikat.
See the Jama collection
The fine pashm fibre itself, woven plain or patterned.
Pashmina names the fine pashm fibre and the cloth made from it. Fibre is separate from technique: pashmina may be woven plain, in checks and stripes, as Kani, or embroidered with sozni.
See the Stole Assortments collectionFurther reading