Best Kashmiri Pashmina Shawls – Luxury Woven Into Simplicity

By Author: bombaybirds
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The entire stock of Pashmina is created & handcrafted with expertise to individualize designs preferred by the customers.

Pashmina wrap, Silk Border Scarf & Pashmina stole are manufactured in unparalleled designs in India. The process of weaving Pashmina is a fine art that dates back from the 15th Century & the times seem to have no major impact on the art.

Even today, Pashmina is finely weaved using the same centuries old process & techniques. The artisan who holds the prowess of weaving is known as “Wovur” & the process is called Wonun. Not many people are aware of the fact that it generally takes 3-4 days to knit a single piece of kashmiri pashmina shawls.

The Making of Kashmiri Pashmina

The process of fabricating Cashmere Pashmina starts from gathering the finest hair of a type of buck named Cashmere (Pashmina) goat found on the soaring loftiness of Ladakh Region. Mother Nature has endowed these bucks with dense undercoat to shield them from the intense weather conditions at an altitude of over 5000 meters.

These goats are raised in multitudes by concerned herdsmen ...
... who separate the fur in the spring time. The coarse hair obtained from the Pashmina goat is then divided from the narrow grey cashmere undercoat. The weavers comb the hairs in order to finely separate the hard fibers from the soft one.
The high-quality & fine soft fleece obtained is called as Asli Tus & eminent for its ultra-soft texture & warming attributes. The fur then is carried from its native environment to the high sterile plains of the Kashmir where the fibers are cleansed, spun into yarn, dyed & finally fabricated into Silk Border Scarf, cashmere scarf & Pashmina stole.

The phenomenal kashmiri Pashmina “ring shawls” that can glide all the way through a small thumb ring are formulated from this extremely fine wool. It takes an artistic hand to impart fringes & designs Cashmere Pashmina shawl.

The soft fibers are carefully hand spun on the Charkha or manually made by winding the Pashmina yarn on the 4-8 iron rods raised on the ground. The process of winding the yarn is known as “Yarun”. The process of spinning is quite arduous as it takes a lot of tolerance, efficiency & commitment to spin the wheel.
The yarn is then separated by a wool merchant (Bharangur or Warp-Dresser) before it can put on a handloom. This process of separation involves stretching & fixing the yarn in the heddles (saaz) of a loom. Pashmina shawls & stole are then woven by bringing the soft Pashmina yarn through the fine & strong silk wrap.

The fiber is transformed into fine woolen products in the harsh climatic conditions where no chemicals have ever been practiced.
Formation of shaping:

After the threads reach the Kashmir vale in disorderly bundles, it is handed over to extremely expertise women for stretching & removing the unwanted waste materials & coarse hair from the fleece. Later the fibers are soaked in a mixture of rice & water & left for few days so as to make the raw material soft. This extremely esteemed art plays an essential role in concocting the yarn for weaving.

Spinning is done by hand on the regular charkha wheel, before sewing. The patterned pashmina wrap are then covered with rice water to yield strength to be fibers.

Method of Dying:

Once the shawl has been woven, it is sent to the Dyer (or Rangur). The method of dyeing opted by Dyer is generally manual. The Dyer tints the yarn with natural colors & affirms that the colors are uniformly distributed. The colored threads are now available for interlacing. The wrap is then passed into and laid out on the weaving platform to fabricate cashmere shawls, stoles or scarves.

The weaver then sets up the loom according to the configuration specifications. It can be left plain in its original color ranging from ivory to brown-grey, or may be patterned in an aggregation of different patterns.

The woven pieces are dropped into mucilage formed from rice & glue, imprinted according to the design needed and then rerouted for needlework.There are various ways of needlework implemented in the valley such as Kanikar & Soznikar.

The needlework is defined as Ari, named after the hook with which it is performed. It is also known as Chain Stitch wherein the experts hold the string beneath the cloth, pass the hook into the cloth & pick the string to the top creating a consecutive series of designs.

Choose the best handmade Scarf & Kashmiri Pashmina shawls online from a wide collection showcased at Bombay Birds. Warp yourself in elegance imparted by authentic cashmere scarf & Shawls!