Kanchipuram silk

We whiled away our afternoon in Kanchipuram in one silk shop, where we saw a woman working on a handloom and then admired countless saris, scarves, pillow covers, table toppers and wall hangings.

 

The complexity of the handlooms is just incredible to me. This set-up is for a relatively simple sari, with a solid color body and zari border.

 

 

The Carter women admiring the weaver's work.

 

 

View from below as she works the loom's pedals.



 

The shop owner told us that most of his saris come from looms in family homes and that some families have worked for his family's shop for generations. Here (and here) are a couple of web sites I found with information about Kanchipuram's silk weaving industry.

And, to be true to my inner activist, I'm also including a link to this article about the industry's problem with child labor. In the 9 years since the article was written, the state government and several NGOs have worked to alleviate the problem while continuing to support silk weaving as the region's traditional craft and industry. One such group is RIDE India.

Here and here are articles detailing some success. There's still a lot of work to do.

(Note to the Carter sisters: The shop we visited was government approved, and therefore is supposed to be meeting the child labor restrictions.)

There's no such thing as "browsing" when shopping in India. At most shops the salespeople pull things out of shelved piles, and you end up going through stacks and stacks until you find just the right thing.

Shopping for scarves that way isn't too tough, but a sari is 6 yards of fabric. You have to see the body, blouse fabric and head of each sari, too, which means opening up the whole thing.

I could do it for hours, though. It was a beautiful end to our day in Kanchipuram.