TAPESTRY FLOWERS
Early Masterpiece Shawls of Kashmir

The first was the use of needle-embroidery rather than the more demanding tapestry-twill loom weaving technique. And although it was possible to produce a shawl of exceptional quality with needle-embroidery done on a twill-woven ground cloth hardly any of these were ever attempted. Most needle-embroidered shawls were low quality both in materials, design and technique. Many were, regrettably, totally inferior to anything formerly produced in Kashmir.

The second was the utilization of a number of weavers to produce each shawl. Whereas formerly only one weaver or at most two were responsible for the production of a shawl now teams of them were employed each one weave only a section. By having many weavers create these separate pieces that were then joined together to create each shawl the amount of man-hours required wasn't changed but the time it took to make one was considerably shortened. This method greatly speeded up production and also facilitated meeting the ever changing demands of European merchants whose orders corresponded to each season's new styles and colors.

Now shawls could be quickly assembled from previously stockpiled parts and did not have to be made to order. This was another important factor leading to the destruction of the traditional weaving culture and the end of the traditional Kashmir shawl weaving industry. It is not surprising within several decades shawls were no longer being produced in Kashmir and the traditional weaving culture was totally destroyed.

Of course these new production methods were only introduced to meet an ever-increasing foreign demand and, in that effort, the shawl industry literally imploded under the strain. The following 15 shawls chosen for this exhibition were made long before that spiral began and these magnificent textiles remain as legacy to the amazing combination of raw materials and the weaving skills that produced them. These examples and the others that have perished or are yet undiscovered were responsible for the fame and notoriety, which in the final analysis were the two factors most responsible for destroying shawl weaving in Kashmir.