Aharam

Aharam weavers are located in Tamil Nadu in South India, not far from the famous temple city of Madurai. They are a producer owned company employing local men and women including those with disabilities. They weave organic cotton into cloth which they stitch into kitchen and table linen, bath and hand towels, soft baby wraps and children's clothing.

For more details about Aharam click here

They buy organic yarn and get it dyed to a very high standard, commercially. The yarn is then prepared for weaving by a process called warping.



Then the warp beam loaded with yarn arranged in the the right pattern, is fitted to the weaving loom and a process of tying the yarn onto the loom called, drafting and denting, is done. Every single thread must be threaded through the heddle wires and reed and is then tied onto the old warp to make the loom ready for weaving. That might involve tying 2500 threads even before weaving can start.


At last the weaving can begin. She/he sits up on a wooden board in front of the loaded loom. She/he uses her feet to operate treadles that move the heddle that lifts threads up and down. The weaver brings the reed forward each time to beat the interwoven threads tight. Hard work and sometimes noisy as many looms click clack.



The long threads on the loom are called warp threads and the ones going across the loom are called weft threads. Those weft threads are wound onto bobbins and mounted on a shuttle which shoots across the warp threads at the pull of a cord. The bobbins are wound and supplied by a woman using a small hand operated bobbin winder made from a bicycle wheel.



You can find their lovely towels to order on this website here....