The rich heritage of hand woven Kashmiri carpets dates back to as early as 15th century. It was the trained Persian weavers who first brought the skill to Kashmir.Since then the unmatched quality of true Kashmiri hand woven carpets has caught the eye of passionate craft lovers the world over. Today the hadicraft industry in Kashmir, along with the tourism industy, has qualified as the leading revenue generator for the state.
A Hand woven Kashmiri carpet goes through months of rigorous hard work, put in by the best of skillsmen, before it finishes into a product of finest quality and finesse. The life cycle of a Kashmiri hand woven carpet starts with the services of a Carpet Designer .The carpet desinger is responsible for creation of the design which translates into an actual carpet later.The imagination of the desginer and his precise sense of color combinations are manifested in graphical designs that are put down on a grid. With each cell on the grid representing a carpet knot the design zooms into the finest details of a carpet. Once the design is completed it is translated to a written script called "Taleem" . A Taleem essentially consists of information about the succsessive knots of a carpet - the color, direction etc. Once the Taleem is available the hunt for the materail starts. A Kashmiri carpet is essentially woven with silk, wool or cotton.

 The yarn is dyed to the desired shade as mentioned in the design. The color combination of the finished carpet has a lot of affect on its look and feel. Therefore this seminal step of dying the yarn particuilarly carries a lot of importance. It takes great care and umpteen skill from the dyers to impart the exact color to the yarn.


Now we have the script as well as the materail for the Carpet at our disposal.
The next step is to use the material in accordance with the script. This is done by the weavers. The weavers at the lowest end of the chain use their skilled hands to decipher the code and give it a shape we know as a "Kashmiri Carpet". The stains that the carpet may be covered with after all the processes removed with thorough washing.



The excess material on the surface of the carpet is snipped off. The final Carpet endowed with the great aura, unmatched finesse and unprecedented quality is ready for use.