Reading a tin of Kashmir saffron before you open it
By Porter Lang Treat saffron like any gear: check the spec first. The spec is short. A colour number, a […]
Journal
Places
A town of red clay panels, built where there was no stone
By Ines Keane Bengal has plenty of mud and very little rock. Bishnupur’s builders worked with that. Their temples are […]
Journal
Weighing a sheer cloth
By Rafe Calder Chanderi is a cloth known for being light. That is the claim every source makes first, and […]
Journal
Pen or block? Read the label before the pattern
By Porter Lang Start with a question you can put to any seller: was this painted or printed? Kalamkari covers […]
Journal
Embroidered on the wrong side
By Ines Keane The embroiderer of a phulkari works from the back of the cloth. She cannot see the pattern […]
Places
Classes under the trees, and a fair after the harvest
By Isla Quinn December in Santiniketan is cool, dry and bright. UNESCO’s description of the place begins with a school […]
Journal
Zardozi: the word is settled, the history is not
By Rafe Calder The word is the easy part. Wikipedia says zardozi comes from Classical Persian, combining zar or zarin, […]
Journal
Fifteen centimetres or twenty? Taking a kangri apart
By Porter Lang Check the diameter first, because the sources do not agree. Wikipedia’s article on the kanger gives about […]
Journal
Six months, or three years: how long a patola takes depends on who you ask
By Ines Keane Start with the time. A museum run by a Patan weaving family says one sari takes four […]
Places
A shadow that moves one millimetre a second
By Isla Quinn Stand beside the largest instrument at the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur and wait. According to Wikipedia, the […]