Khinkhwab Diaries

Vyshyvanka embroidery, wax-written pysanky eggs and the flowering folk painting of Petrykivka — the bright craft heritage of Ukraine, where a band of cross-stitch could tell you a stranger’s home...

Kadwa or cutwork? The two ways a Banarasi saree is woven — what kadwa (kadhua) weaving is, how it differs from cutwork, and why it costs more.

From the fine cloth that wrapped the Buddha to the looms still working in Varanasi today — the long, astonishing story behind every Banarasi saree.

What you are really paying for in a Banarasi — how silk, zari, weave and labour add up, and how to read the price of a saree with confidence.

Khokhloma gold, Gzhel blue and the pearl-sewn kokoshnik — the folk and court crafts of Russia, the painters who recorded them, and the great fair where the fur road met...

Why a handloom Banarasi costs more than a powerloom one — the months of skilled human work, the real silk and the zari behind the price.

Safavid silk, the Ardabil Carpet and the boteh that became the paisley — the crafts of Iran, and why half the vocabulary of a Banaras loom is Persian.

Colour within the gold — how Banarasi weavers fill their motifs with jewel-bright resham, borrowing the jeweller's enamel art, and how it differs from rangkat.

Bukhara gold embroidery, Margilan cloud-tied silk and the suzani — the crafts of Uzbekistan, and the road that carried them all the way to Banaras.

Jaal or jangla? Both cover a saree all over — but a jangla is the densest, wildest, most jungle-like jaal of all. The difference, explained.

Nasrid silk, lustre tiles and Toledo gold — the crafts of Spain, from the looms of the Alhambra to the court that Velázquez and Goya painted.

Colour-blocking on the handloom — how a Rangkat saree's ground shifts from one colour to the next, joined block by block, in one of the rarest Banarasi weaves.