Intricate Weave Handloomed Pashminas, Scarves & Other Treasures
The Beginning
My passion for handloomed textiles found me one morning standing in a textile shop in Pushkar, Rajasthan, India, holding a soft silky dusky orange pashmina that caught the rays of the sun, while noticing some business men packing suitcases full of these textiles.
Asking the owner what they were about, I was told they were from another region and buying textiles to sell. He told me his family made these beautiful textile’s. It planted a thought in my mind.
The memory of this occasion lingered in the back of my mind and was brought to the forefront during trips into the isolated areas of the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where they weave exquisite bed blankets out of wool, soft, light and warm. Life is hard in those mountains isolated from the rest of the world.
Wandering the alleys of the old walled medinas of Fes, Rissani and Marrakech, I came across family groups of weavers using fabrics such as, cotton, cotton and silk made from the agave cactus to create beautiful pieces.
So Intricate Weave was born with the purpose of assisting to preserve traditional weaving in remote regions of the world. The aim is to ensure that these age-old traditions are preserved and passed to the next generation, not lost to mere memory.
In purchasing a woven piece of work, the buyer has acquired a practical, unique and exquisite item and has also made a contribution to conserving a way of life.
For the weavers, it assists in providing a better way of life for themselves and their families, and maintains their skills which can then be passed on to their children, thus ensuring the future of their craft.
Intricate Weave must use best business practice to cover all costs and make revenue so it can be self-sustaining. In the future it will contribute to selected projects in the areas where the products are sourced.
This is a social business designed to address a social objective.
Exquisite Weaving
These textile’s are handpicked by Intricate Weave for their originality, colour and quality of fabric. The textiles chosen are individual pieces or of a limited quantity only.
Each piece has a story to tell that begins with the production of the fiber, the design of textile, setting up of the loom and the actual weaving of the fibers. In fact, many hours of loom work are dedicated by the male and female weavers to produce each individual exquisite piece.
These textiles will give delight in ownership of such an intricate item and thus help a community by providing a source of income.
This will help maintain these age old skills from across the generations to continue as they struggle to compete against factory mass production.
It would be a great loss to the world if this art of weaving was lost in time to a mere paragraph in a history book.
Receiving a unique and beautiful item is a wonderful way of contributing to keeping these traditional skills alive.
Intricate weave interacts with cooperatives and remote villages throughout the world to source these exquisite items of weaving