So This Is Christmas

Merry Christmas is such an infectious feeling I like to feel that way all year around.

So if you are visiting just before Christmas, just after Christmas or even here on Christmas day I am sure you will find something of interest for you and in the spirit of Christmas.

It may be said that Christmas is no longer a celebration but this must be spoken by people that have never had trouble closing their eyes on Christmas Eve in an expectation of what maybe left for them on the carpet under the tree.

I continue to look forward to the surprise on my Grandchild's faces to this day at Christmas events.

Merry Christmas - Merry Christmas - Merry Christmas

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Handmade Kashmiri Pashmina, Cashmere, Jamawar Shawls

By Agus Rahman


Kashmiri Shawls have been renowed since centuries and were the pride of French Princess, Marie Antoinette. With a long tradition of artistic excellence, the shawl is one of the most admired handmade fabric of Kashmir. Superb in workmanship,.

. D) as the initiator of Shawl industry in Kashmir. It may be the Sultan whose enlightened rule encouraged promotion of arts as an organized trade and also the Pashmina or in Persian called "Pashm" that we know today is a legacy of that period.

Shawls are worn d used as a warm protective clothes all throughout the northern states today. Kashmir has become synonymous with shawls all over the world. It's a work of delicacy, tremendous concentration and as well much of patience. The decoration is formed by weft threads interlocked where the colors change, the weavers passing them amid the warps using bobbins around, which the variously colored threads are wound. The raw material for pashmina is brought from and taken to for hand-weaving followed by embroidery and finishing.

Kashmiri shawls are rare and distinctive,. There are three fibres from which Kashmiri shawls are produced - wool, pashmina and shahtoosh. The prices of the three cannot be compared - woollen shawls being within reach of the most modest budget, and shahtoosh being a one-in-a-lifetime purchase.

Woollen shawls are stylish simply because of thembroidery worked on them, which is unique to Kashmir. Both embroidery plus the type of wool used bring about differences in the price. Wool woven in Kashmir is known as raffle.

Cashmere shawls and Pashmina Shawls have a delicate, silky softness that sets them separate from ordinary woolen shawls. Obtained from the fleecy undergrowth of the rare Kashmiri goat through common combing techniques, their delicate silky softness carries an aura of luxury & class that created it the choice of kings and nobility in a bygone era. We patterns, fabricate and export an exquisite range of Cashmere Shawls embellished with ethnic Kashimiri work and other elegant designs.

Although pure pashmnina is expensive, the cost is sometimes brought down by blending it with rabbit fur or with wool. It is on pashmina shawls that Kashmir's most exquisite embroidery is executed, sometimes covering the entire surface, earning it the name of 'jamawar'. A Jamawar shawl can, by virtue of the embroidery, increase the value of a shawl threefold.

Shahtoosh, from which the legendary 'ring shawl' is made, is incredibly light, soft and warm. The astronomical price it commands in the market is due to the scarcity of the raw material. High in the plateaux of Tibet additionally, the eastern a component of Ladakh, at an altitude of above 5, 000 m, roam the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops Hodgsoni). During grazing, a few strands of the downy hair from the throat are shed which are painstakingly collected by the nomads, eventually to supply to the Kashmiri shawl makers as shahtoosh.

. 'Sozni' (needlework) is frequently done in a panel along the sides of the shawl. Sozni is often done so skilfully that the motif might seem on both sides of the shawl, every side with a different colour scheme. This naturally has a bearing on the cost.

Another type of needle embroidery is popularly known as 'papi�r m�ch�' work simply because of the patterns and also the trend in which it's executed. This is done either in broad panels on either side along the breadth of a shawl, or covering the entire surface of the breadth of a shawl or that of a stole.

A third type of embroidery is Aari or hook embroidery. Motifs here are the famous flower models finely worked in concentric rings of chain stitch.

A less frequently seen weave done just on pashmina, protects the surface with tiny lozenge shaped squares, earning it the delightful name of 'chashm-e-bulbul, ' or "eye of the bulbul". As this weave is a masterpiece of the weaver's art, it's normally not embroidered upon.

Kashmir shawls were first worn in popular circles in the West in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, and by 1800 the shawl trade among the Kashmir and the West was well set. The appearance of European agents in Kashmir added fresh colour to an already cosmopolitan scene.

Except woven imitations Persia also made embroidered shawls in the Kashmir fashion but the fact remains that KASHMIRI Shawls have become a must have for each women because of its Royal appeal.




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