Silk Stories
The Photographer
Resources
COMMUNITY

Silk Stories
The Photographer
Resources
COMMUNITY

Day in the life of a weaving village

“I was born here and learned silk weaving from my father thirty five years ago when I was fifteen. This village is good and I like weaving.  My children have finished their studies.  They do not need to come into this work because they ar

“Iyangar Kulam is a spiritual village.  There is a temple on almost every street. The main deity in this village is Sanjeevaraar.  In 10 months out of 12, we have deity celebrations.  When we start new work, we remember Lord Ganesha

“I’ve lived here for the past fifteen years.  The village is good.  Expenses are low here and children can be raised in a good environment, free from bad habits.  Our house was dripping with water, so eventually we needed to shift to

“This work of weaving has been passed on to me from my forefathers’ generation as an art.  It is just like being artists.  We worship this work and start doing it just like we do Surya Namaskara in the mornings.”  Kannan, Weaver

“I’ve been in this village for 20 years. The people here are friendly but our generation doesn’t like village life that much. I hang around with my friends in the evening, look at the internet and browse Flipkart. I also spend time with f

“Earlier, people used to buy a lot of silk sarees, but it is diminishing now with the advent of apoorva (artificial) silk.  People feel that real silk sarees cost more.  And we get only 75-100 rupees (about $1.50) a day for our labor.”

“Weaving is the lifeline of this town.  If not for weaving, we would not have our livelihoods here.  I am from a weaving family, but earnings are less in the weaving business.  Hence, people are slowly moving toward educating their ch

Silk Stories by Pam Kaplan