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MAKING
OF PASHMINA SHAWLS |
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The
first step on process consists in collecting the raw
material, which is freely available as soon as summer sets in,
the tribal people of Ladakh goes to higher region to collect
the raw material, the raw wool thus collected is handed over to buyer's in the hilly township who passes into the traders
in Kashmir and is also available from the Government wool
Board, them the second step is of spinning of pashm, which is
a time consuming process requires lot of efforts and
patience's by women and actual time taken to deal with 50 gram
of pashm is around 20 to 25 hours of hard work. |
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Spinning
of Pashmina on Yender |
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Pashmina Shawl being
woven on a loom |
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The
first task is to get rid it of the coarse hair, This is done by
hand, each small tuft of Pashmina being teased out and hair removed one by one in the process a great deal of
dust also come out, to rid the pashm of its natural oiliness, it's
then thoroughly mixed with flour made from soaked and ground
rice, this is applied clamp and rubbed and the pashm is them
is then teased out once more, tuft by tuft on a small wooden
const. |
| This ancient treatment of the raw material is still
in practice it makes raw wool soft and whiter and the
material is ready for spinning on a Kashmir spinning
wheel or "Yender", which is made of wool and
is about three feet in length with a wheel on one
side and thin iron rod about 12 inches fixed in two
glass spindles on the other side, It's turned by mean of a
handle and another cord passing over the rim transfers the
movement from the wheel to the spindle. The yarn mounted on
hanks from the pritz, a large reel with a handle,
using the simple mean of two large nails set 20 Cms apart
in a wooden blank, the banks will be divided into 20
thread bundles tied with colour cotton. |
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Draftsman
printing the design |
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Embroidery
being done on a shawl |
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The yarn from the
bundles is taken to the weaver who takes week or so to fix
the thread of the warp on the loom of a tiny frame made of
wood with 4 to 8 slings below the weaver's feet. The welf
is made into cones mounted on the straws by using the old
tradition of transferring the yarn from the wooden spool
to spinning wheel. Now the weavers starts his job of
weaving the cloth of shawls on the looms with his hands
and feet. A weavers weaves 4 to 6 inches of cloth in a day
after bring the cloth from the loom the same cloth is
send to washing in a herbal soap of Kashmir in a running
waters and then it's dyed by hand and gets ready for
embroider, some are just made plain. |
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Washing of Pashmina Shawls |
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