It was in the early 19th century that a new concept of weaving was incorporated into the weaving of jamawar. This art form dates back many centuries when weavers were brought to Kashmir from Persia. Since then, the art of jamawar weaving has grown and flourished and it reached its peak in the Mughal period.

These jamawar shawls were then made mainly for kings; who incidentally, did not always pay the weavers in cash for it. Sometimes they used to pay them with food, clothing and shelter. Persian inspired motifs that were intricate in detail were brought to the Kashmir region of India in the 15th century, then under the rule of Zain-ul-Abdin.

Weavers spent months to add an inch to the shawl

The patterns for the shawls were then created using weft thread of different colors that did not actually run the entire width of the fabric. Several wooden shuttles of various colors are used to create a single weft line of the shawl. 50 colors can be worked into a shawl, where the colors most often used are white, yellow, green, purple, black, crimson, turquoise and scarlet.

These threads were woven back and forth in small areas until the desired area was created. It was because of this expensive weaving technique that the patterns of these shawls only covered the edges and ends of the shawls. The weavers had to spend months to prepare a single shawl where not more than an inch was added per day to its 48 inches width.

It was the intricate work involved in creating these shawls that made them affordable to only the wealthy. In fact, it was in the 18th century that European aristocracy also developed a fancy for these jamawars.

It was only after the invention of the jacquard loom in the 19th century that shawls were created using the traditional jamawar designs, but in a cost effective method. This form of weaving made these shawls affordable to a larger group of people. In addition to this, these jamawar shawls were produced with motifs that covered larger areas of the shawl.

Author: Nicky Cakelstein

About the author:
Written by Nicky Cakelstein. Now you can learn all you wanted to know about jamawar shawl and even pashmina wool.

Article source: Free Fashion Articles.