Silk Weaving, Kumbakonam, India.

In the 17th century India had 20% of the world’s population and accounted for 25% of the manufacturing, which was almost entirely related to textiles. Today the silk market is so huge in Kumbakonam that approximately 5000 families are employed by the Silk Weaving Industry in Kumbakonam. The Thirubuvanam Silk Handloom Weavers is the biggest society in Tamil Nadu, delivering conventional silk sarees with unadulterated Zari. The region is well known for silk weaving from the time of Great Chola rulers. This home shop dyes and spins silk, then loads the silk onto shuttles for hand weaving. There is some hand manipulation of the blue/gren transition design, and use of Jacquard weaving templates for the blue/gold edge. Could have watched this for quite some time… And yes, I bought one.