Welcome to the PEO Online Pop-up
As a way to say thank you for your support, I have curated a special online "trunk show" for members of the New Hampshire chapter of PEO. I hope that you will enjoy the beautiful work of Indian artisans. Many of the pieces shown here are made exclusively by women, but women have been involved, in some capacity, in the creation of all of the items shown.
More than 90% of the items here are being shown for the first time, and represent a variety of textile techniques and processes. I have explained these techniques briefly below - but please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Upcycled silk sari "kantha" embroidered scarves, wraps and shrugs
Kantha means "old cloth" and refers both to the age-old tradition of making quilts and blankets out of upcycled saris, much like the quilts that your own grandmother may have made and also to the stitch itself - a small, straight running stitch.
Our upcycled silk sari scarves, wraps and shrugs (immediately below) are an innovative take on this tradition. They are made from 2 pieces of silk sari pieces stitched together using the kantha stitch. In addition to making beautiful pieces of wearable art, the air trapped between the layers of fabric add a layer of warmth to any outfit you will wear them with.
Use them as accessories on a formal outfit or to dress up a casual one. The scarves and wrap can also be used as table runners or wall hangings.
We don’t have any products to show here right now.
Natural handwoven silk "Nakshi" kantha embroidered scarves and robe
While the basic running stitch still defines much of what kantha embroidery is about, the work has evolved over time to using this basic stitch to create more elaborate patterns ("nakshi") representing symbols and motifs from the everyday life of the women. To create pieces for urban and international markets, the women updated their patterns from the more traditional to create geometric patterns.
I have included 4 nakshi kantha pieces - 3 scarves and 1 overlay/robe below.
"Ahimsa" or peace silk hand-block-printed stoles/wraps
The 3 stoles/wraps below are made from "peace" silk and handblock printed by a team of block printers. They are designed by a woman designer based in the south of India. In the creation of this cruelty-free or peace silk, the silkworm is not destroyed in the process of making the silk, and the moth is allowed to escape the cocoon. The silk is handspun into yarn, woven into fabric and blockprinted. Each stage is completed by hand.
The silk is soft and textured and drapes beautifully.
Handwoven Pashmina (cashmere) scarves
The 3 cashmere scarves are made from the pashm fibre, our most luxurious fabric. The pashm fibre is sourced from the fine fibres found on goats reared by nomads in the high plateaus of Tibet and Ladakh (in the Himalayas). The fibers are hand spun and handwoven in Kashmir, the northern-most state in India, nestled in the Himalayas.
These scarves are exquisitely soft to the touch, with a high warmth to weight ratio, per the natural characteristics of pashm fibre.
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Handwoven Himalayan and merino wool, naturally dyed stole and scarf
The scarf and stole below are made from handspun and handwoven Himalayan sheep and merino wool. They are naturally dyed using locally found materials. The red is madder and the orange is a flower known as "flame of the forest" that grows locally in the Himalayan foothills where these items are made.
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Handwoven and handspun silk jamdani "extra-weft" stoles
These silk stoles are handwoven in West Bengal. These stoles are made using an age-old textile technique known as jamdani, whereby supplementary weft motifs and stripes are added by hand while the yarn is still on the loom.
Shibori Clamp-dyed silk stoles
Shibori is the art of manipulating cloth by tying, stitching, knotting or otherwise securing it and then dyeing it to create a specific pattern. Shibori is a japanese technique, but variations of this form exist in India, other Asian countries and Africa. These shibori stoles have been made by folding and clamping cloth between blocks and then dyeing them multiple times to acheive these designs.
We don’t have any products to show here right now.
Handwoven linen and metallic thread stole
This light-weight and gauzy stole is handwoven in West Bengal. It is handwoven with linen and sophisticated metallic thread and contrasting selvedge. It is soft and delicately textured, with beautifully handf-inished fringing.
