A beautiful intricately hand embroidered cashmere pashmina, selected from the series 'Food of Heaven' which is based on the shapes and colours of the various foods and spices of Kashmir. The shawl is titled Akhrot meaning walnut. This shawl was created with Cashmere sourced in June 2020 from Rango Village from herds belonging to Mrs Decchan Dolma. Temperatures here can reach minus 15 degrees during the Winter, the goats grow a fine long-haired undercoat that forms a natural heat-insulating shield against the cold. This fibre is light and warm with amazing insulating properties, the fibres are extremely fine varying between 9 - 16 microns.
Traditionally the dehairing of the cashmere, the process of removing the thicker guard hair from the cashmere fibre, was carded by hand in Srinagar, but due to the pandemic, it was impossible to transport the raw pashmina to Kashmir, so the process was done in Kullu.
The baby soft cashmere was spun in Kashmir where spinning is a traditional culture, The soft fibre is converted into yarn ranging between 110-140 'English count' in thickness, this fineness of yarn would be difficult to achieve on modern machinery without a carrier fibre. The weft yarn for this shawl will have taken approximately one month to spin. The warp was spun in Kullu making this a unique combination of cultures, again this was due to the difficulties with moving yarn around due to the pandemic.
Woven by Mohamad Manzoor R/O Saida-Kadal who has 14 looms run with his family and co-workers. Once the weaving is complete the fabric is given to a skilled craftsperson in the Ganderbal District to embroider, in this case, it was Mr FarookAhmad. The yarn was dyed by Mr Zakir Wani in the finishing plant in Hawal. The pashmina was finally completed in January 2023, 3 years after the sourcing of the 'Golden Fibres' in Rango village.
'Shawl Akhaurat' was inspired by the dry fruit of Kashmir, the walnut, this is one of the most popular dry fruits found in abundance throughout Kashmir. The walnut is considered a prime source of income in various regions of Kashmir. This is a full Jamawar made with 100% Ladakh pashmina, tightly woven on a simple pit-loom and hand embroidered.
The shawl will be supplied in a wooden box crafted in the same region and with a book entitled 'The Kashmir Shawl', which will create a backdrop for you of the 'landscape and lives' where these shawls are created.
Composition: 100% Cashmere, sourced in Ladakh and selected from the finest Grade 'A' fibres.
Size: 98 x 204 cm ( 39.5 x 82.5 inches )
Made in Kashmir
Care: Professional cleaning only
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