A Community of Kilim Weavers

The weaving community resides on the banks of the River Ganges in Mirzapur.

While the men are more involved with weaving, the women of the community are engaged in the cultivation of corn.

A notable feature of community integration in the area is a religious text in Urdu (spoken mainly by Muslims in India) pasted outside a Hindu weaver’s home to ward off the evil eye.

A charpai is hand-woven with jute yarn, which is left over from the dhurrie weaving.

These beds with handmade wooden legs are used by everyone in the community, both indoors and outdoors. Waste from dhurrie production, therefore, is put to useful purpose.

From design conceptualisation and translation, the procurement of yarn and dyeing it, to finally creating the finished product, the process of weaving one carpet can take from a few days to several months, depending on the requirements of the particular piece.

Weaving takes place in sheds or in the extremely humble homes of weavers.

The roofs of some of the old-time weaving places are so low that one needs to crouch to enter.

Seen here is a loom shed in the community. It is around 8 feet in length to accommodate a pit loom. It sometimes has no source of direct sunlight or fresh air.

Even in these difficult conditions, weavers bring out beautiful carpets.

The workshop at any point has different yarn counts ready to be woven into carpets after being dyed.

Different yarn counts in the workshop after being dyed and waiting to be woven into carpets.

Master weaver Abdul Kalam's elderly parents also participate in the weaving activities.

Here, his father is spinning the wool which is to be used for the carpets, while his mother is standing behind.

A woman unwinds the wool outside her house.

Mirzapur-Bardohi is a major centre for different types of carpets and floor coverings, despite some setbacks that occurred nearly two decades ago when the international issue of child labour disrupted the economy.

Presently, children go to school and they pick up small skills related to carpet production after school hours.

While Abdul Kalam is a successful artisan and an entrepreneur who started from scratch, he is also unusual in his desire to see other artisans and members of his community share the benefits of this success.

Seen here is a weaver carrying his finished carpets to the master weaver's showroom for sale.

Unlike vertical looms the community also has flat straight looms. Flat weave dhurries are more affordable.

Flat weave floor coverings comprise of dhurries and rugs, which a variety of techniques for the interaction of warp and weft.

The distinguishing feature is that they do not involve a raised pile, as in carpets. Instead, they use interlacing, interlocking, wrapping and a combination of techniques that may also involve more than a single warp and/or weft.

Design specification sheet on the loom is being woven.

A metal brush is used for beating the weft yarn in order to make the designs.

Extra wool is cut after weaving.

The loom is set in such a way that the weaver can weave two carpets, one after the other.

Seen here is the margin between the two carpets when they are on the loom.

Abdul Kalam has five looms of his own. He also distributes work to other artisans in the community, and is associated with 65 looms in the area.

Like most local weavers, he gets his dyeing done from an independent dyeing unit.

This technique is mostly used to make floor mats.

Hand-tufted carpets are often used as floor mats.

Master weaver Abdul Kalam (standing on the extreme left), with other weavers in his workshop area.

Abdul Kalam is an example of a craftsman driving his own success through his fine crafts skills and his passion, and his vision of where he wants to take it.

Read more about Kilim Floor Coverings here:

- Weaving Process
- Dyeing Process