About pashmina
Pashmina is often inaccurately described as the highest quality of cashmere. In fact there is no difference between cashmere and pashmina. The highest quality of pashmina is the highest quality of cashmere, and the lowest pashmina is the lowest cashmere. Pashmina and cashmere refer to the same thing. The raw material comes from Tibet and Inner Mongolia.
What is pashmina ?
Pashmina is the name of the finest hand made woolen fabric made from the soft, downy undercoat that grows primarily on the neck and belly of the Himalayan Mountain goat, Capra hiracus. Therefore pashmina is Pashm in woven from. The word Pashm is adjective of a Kashmiri word ‘Posh’, meaning the animal. In the opinion of some oriental scholars the word pashmina is of either Turkish or Persian origin.
Pashm has a special luster due to its long fine fibers which are as thin as 12 microns. By contrast, The fibers from premium sheep’s wool such as Merino extra fine, are 23 microns thick and human hair ranges up to 200 microns thickness. Thus pashmina is exceptionally light, soft and warm and feels luxurious against the skin. The natural colors of the fleece range from white to gray, brown, dark tan and black.
We are expertly engaged in manufacturing of special type of shawls known as kani shawl. The kani technique of weaving jamawar shawl is complex procedure. Kani is basically like a wooden shuttle which is used in the technique. Multiple shuttles are used for making shawls with multiple colors. Usually more than one colors are used for weaving a single line of fabric .The popular colors used for making jamawar shawls are yellow blue crimson green etc. The attractive colors of these shawls keep the tradition of wearing these shawls alive These shawls are always the fashion statement of the royals It takes at least two years to complete a single shawl These shawls are very expensive .
What is the difference between Cashmere and Pashmina?
People often ask the question – what is the difference between Cashmere and Pashmina?
The simple answer is that pashmina yarn is combed ,cleaned and then spun on wooden wheel called (charkha) by The weavers of Kashmir and also the pashmina is 100% pashmina yarn without blended with any other wool. While Cashmere is blended form .
Difference between original and fake kani shawl | Kani Shawls
The Jacquard loom shawls with printed imitations are produced at cheaper rates as compared to the original kani shawls which are handmade.
The imitations are made in different parts of india and are sold by retailers in Delhi and other parts of the world at a very low price than original kani shawl.
“It is very difficult for a customer to distinguish between an original Kani shawl and a fake one,” the Jacquard made shawls have imitated designs of Kani and are produced in bulk. Artisans individuals from non-traditional backgrounds have learned this craft and have set up enterprises, producing low quality machine made shawls increasing the competition further for the traditional weavers.
“Hundreds of shawls can be made in these machines in a day whereas it takes many months to weave a Kani shawl with hands” .
most of the retailer sells the imitated Kani shawls in the name of original hand made Kani shawl. They are cheating the customer and bringing bad name to Kashmir handicraft.
Exporters are also doing business with the machine made shawls in place of original Kani shawls thus decreasing the market for authentic Kani shawls.
The artisans demand direct market opportunities so that they are not exploited. “Government should support us and provide us market. Plus kani shawl society like us should adopt latest technology and social websites to promote the real kani shawl from Kashmir.
below the given picture explain the method of weaving kani shawl.