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The Paizely
The Hands

The HandsBehind the Art

Named · Credited
Paid fairly and on time

Meet
the hands
Three of the hands

The peoplebehind the weave

A loom · a needle
and the years behind each

An old wooden handloom in a dim workshop, folded jamawar shawls stacked on a shelf and spools of thread below, dust in the window light

01·Master Weaver

Ghulam Rasool Dar

A lifetime at the loom

A lifetime at the loom; his kani shawls have travelled further than he ever will and he is content with that

Sozni in progress on beige Pashmina: a fine floral border in red and blue, and a hoop holding the next border with the needle still in the cloth

02·Sozni Embroiderer

Zarina Begum

A lifetime at the needle

Her needle moves faster than the eyeEach of her stitches is smaller than a grain of rice

Two hands knotting thread at the beam of a loom, photographed in black and white

03·Kani Artisan

Abdul Majid

A lifetime reading the talim

A keeper of the talim — the coded script by which kani patterns pass from one generation to the next

An elderly artisan in a woollen pheran and knitted cap, drawing a thread up as he sews a grey cloth
Look closer

Touch and drag to look closer at the weave

The detail

A lifetimein the fingers

The years show in the hand before they show in the cloth: the grip on the needle · the pace · the thread drawn to the same tension every time · That is what you are holding

  • Sozni
  • Kani
  • Rafugari
  • Finishing
How it is made
Our terms

Fair termsPatient timelinesFull credit

Our weavers are paid in full, with no middlemen in between. A craft cannot survive once its makers can no longer earn a living from it. Wherever we can, we record the weaving cluster behind each piece, so the people who made it are remembered with it.

See the pieces