How it's made

A silk saree passes through many hands. These are the steps, and we check the work along the way. The warp is the set of threads that run along the saree. The weft runs across it.

Planning

1. 

   Specification

   We decide the color, the type of silk, the weight, the length, the border and the pallu before anything else.

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2. 

   Design

   For our fully handmade pieces, the motifs are drawn on graph paper and punched into physical cards that guide the jacquard on the loom. For our semi-automatic pieces, the design goes into a computer that controls the jacquard.

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Silk from the silkworm

1. 

   Mulberry and silkworm rearing

   Silk farming is called sericulture. Silkworms are raised on fresh mulberry leaves and eat for weeks before they are ready to spin.

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2. 

   Reeling

   Fine threads of silk are spun together to make one thread of raw silk.

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Preparing the yarn

1. 

   Twisting (throwing)

   Strands of raw silk are doubled and twisted into yarn. The warp is twisted from 1 to 4 ply, depending on the weight of the saree.

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2. 

   Degumming

   The yarn is boiled to take out sericin, the natural gum in silk. This leaves it soft and bright.

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3. 

   Dyeing the warp and weft

   The warp and weft are dyed in hanks to the color in the specification, then dried.

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4. 

   Bobbin winding

   The dyed hanks are wound onto bobbins, ready for warping.

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5. 

   Pirn winding

   The weft silk and zari are wound onto pirns, the small spools that sit inside the shuttle.

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Setting up the warp and loom

1. 

   Warping

   The warp threads are laid side by side at the set length and width, with zari for the border alongside them. This decides how many sarees the warp will make.

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2. 

   Rolling the warp (beaming)

   The warp is rolled tightly and evenly onto the warp beam, which goes on the loom.

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3. 

   Setting up the loom

   Each warp thread is passed through the heddles (drawing-in) and the reed (denting), or tied by hand to the last warp on the loom (tying-in). The reed sets the width of the saree.

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Weaving

1. 

   Weaving the length

   On a handloom, the weaver opens the warp (shedding), passes the shuttle across (picking) and presses the weft into place (beating), thousands of times. One warp makes one long length holding several sarees, each with its body, border and pallu.

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After the loom

1. 

   Cutting

   The finished length comes off the loom and is cut into single sarees.

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2. 

   Quality check

   Each saree is checked from end to end for broken threads, floats, breaks in the pattern and color match, and for length, width and weight.

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3. 

   Mending and finishing

   Small faults are mended by hand, loose threads are trimmed, the fringe is finished and the saree is pressed.

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4. 

   Packaging

   The saree is folded, tagged and packed, ready for you.

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Two ways we weave

• Fully handmade. Physical punch cards guide the jacquard. Hand work means no two pieces are exactly the same. A small change in the weave is the mark of a person at the loom, not a fault.
• Semi-automatic. A computer controls the jacquard in place of punch cards.

Ask us which way a piece was made.

How we check quality

• The yarn. We check that the thread is even before it goes on the loom.
• The color. We check the color against the specification after dyeing.
• The weave. We watch for missed threads and uneven borders while the piece is on the loom.
• The finished piece. We look over every piece from end to end before it reaches you.