It takes a community to build a carpet in Kashmir. Over as long as a decade, a carpet will move from family to family, each one an expert in their task. It starts with the silk suppliers, dyers and spinners, and moves to the weaver for several years. Once the weaver is finished, it goes to the washers, trimmers and binders. Finally, it shows up here at A Silk Addiction. Every carpet we carry is hand woven from 100% silk thread tied on a silk or cotton foundation on home-made looms in Kashmir.
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Every once in a while, you stumble across a master piece that you just can't take your eyes off of. Here's one of those things. Karla is laying on a 9'x12' carpet made of over 9 million hand-tied silk knots on a silk foundation. It took 6 years to produce this one-of-a-kind dazzling heart breaker. Drop us an email if you'd like to see it in person and we'll arrange it.
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My driver is a Brahmin, born into the hereditary class of Indian priests. He gently coaxes our small white sedan through an enormous mud puddle and sounds his horn at a doe-eyed cow sauntering lazily through the middle of the road. We've been bumping and weaving for nearly four hours on our way to visit his village. The road narrows and the vegetation thins with every mile that clouds up in the dust behind us. Raju's smile sparkles as he looks at me in the rear view mirror. "We are very close now. You will meet my grandfather soon."
Read MoreI didn't realize I was hooked until a few days after I got home. Everything is so strange, both going and returning, that it took a little while to get my bearings again, sleepy at odd hours and awake in the wee morning. But pretty soon, the voice was clear. "I want Indian masala tea." Coffee wasn't doing it, and those "Chai Tea" bags were just frustratingly yucky.
So began my scouring of recipes and quizzing my Indian friends about how they made masala tea. Several dozen experiments later, I've finally settled on a formula that scratches the itch. It turns out to be pretty popular with others too, so here it is for you to try also.
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We are creeping slowly down the steep stone steps in pitch black, except for two tiny birthday cake candles, one in each of my guide's hands. Thick swarms of mosquitos cloud around the candles, momentarily distracted from lunch (me) by the weak flames. The six hundred year old stones are cool under my bare feet, but the air is thick and soupy. One hand on the wall, one on the ceiling, I slip my toes forward, searching for the edge of the step to keep from flailing down towards the burial chamber below.
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The Taj Mahal is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Breathtakingly sublime, from the first glimpse in the distance, all the way to a close eyeball's inspection of the tiniest stone flower inlays, it's hard to imagine just how this thing could have possibly been summoned into this universe by human hands. It's enormous and, at the same time, exquisitely detailed. The white marble structure is reflected in a long watery garden, at the center of 3 enormous stone gates. At the very center of the entire complex, directly under the central dome, rests a Mughal Emperor's queen and just to one side, as if as an afterthought, rests the Emperor himself.
Read MoreWell, here it goes. We've been collecting the finest, most interesting scarves and carpets from northern India for years now, and we're finally ready to share them with you. Hope you like what you find here. Let us know what you think. We are all ears.
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