India, Aeshaane, The ‘Chota Alu’ Tussar Peace Silk Scarf

Product name:  The ‘Chota Alu’ (Small Potato) Tussar Peace Silk scarf

Beyond fair wages, each purchase positively impacts the livelihoods of artisans that made your product.

Type of product: Slow cloth – Scarves, shawls and wraps

Description (story of the item): I am never tired of repeating the story about how we carved our first block from a potato in my mother-in-law’s kitchen. We took the largest one and cut a simple leaf out of it. We named it the 'Alu' (potato) block. It was a minimalist repeat pattern with one humble leaf. Little did we know that it would go on to become one of our best sellers, being housed in one of the World’s leading Museum of Art and Design, 'The Victoria & Albert Museum, London'!

Meet 'Chota alu' (small potato)! Well, we like to keep reinventing using our old blocks, and name them like they really exist! Each one has a unique name just like us. Some are named after celebrities or buyers who bought those patterns, others from a memory that we associate them with, like 'The Alu' here! It’s my reminiscences of our early days with just one artisan, one table in our backyard and no blocks; of course with my mom-in-law peeking from the kitchen window to see what we were doing with all her potatoes!

Artisan story - The network of silk farming is made up of mothers, grandmothers and sons, thereby making cocoon farming a family affair! There is an entire army of rural artisans behind creating this piece of art. Our Tussar silk cloth is a completely handmade artisan product, made by Ravi and his family, who've been weaving silk for the last three generations. They nurture their small dreams in a remote village called 'Bhagaiya'. His mother, 'Shivrani Devi' wakes up in the wee hours of the morning, to remove the fibres from the empty cocoons from which the worm has exited. Soon 'Dadi' (grandmother) takes over by gathering the yarns, and then 'Shanikumar' his brother, spins them by hand using the time-honoured 'Charkha' or the spinning wheel. Finally, to the most treasured part, where Ravi's father 'Shivshankar Ram' breathes life into the Ahimsa using the ancient heritage wooden loom. Each piece has taken at least a week to produce, excluding the harvesting and printing. Each piece is ethical, produced in a small batch and truly a fabric with a soul! Besides earning a fair income from their work, all our artisans have a sense of belonging, a place that they can call their own, that gives them a life filled with love, pride and dignity, where they can benefit from being together as a community. 

At Aeshaane, our artisans

- have a safe and flexible working environment

- Encouragement to use their own creativity

- Ability to work around their children

- Integration into an uplifting community

- Dignified work where their voices are heard

- Options to participate in workshops and other leadership activities 

Workshop - Each scarf is handmade at Aeshaane's in house workshop in a small village in Bengal, where our artisans share our values and produce in a fair way. We celebrate all that is slow, ethical and does not harm the people, animals or the planet. 

Materials: 100% Natural Tussar Peace Silk 

Colour : Burgundy and rich natural gold of tussar silk 

Variation in printing & color are hallmarks of hand block printing and dyeing in small batches. Here’s to celebrating blemishes, flaws, faulty and irregular.

Dyes - Azo-free non-toxic dyes

Handfeel - Light-mid weight, crisp, porous and rich texture, beautifully slubbed. Deep natural gold sheen that lends a lot of character, the more you wear and own them the softer and more endearing they become.

Properties- Tussar silk is cooler than the other varieties of silk, as it is a lot more porous, therefore, breathable. It is light, airy and comfortable. 

Origin - Much of it is produced in Bhagalpur, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand. 

Measurements / size: L 210 cm W 68 cm

Natural selvedge on the long sides, Tassles on both ends

Availability / stock level: Dispatched in 21 business days.

In a world flooded with fast fashion merchandise that are discarded as quickly as they are purchased, we invite everyone to slow down and cherish garments that are made slowly and deliberately by artisans. At Aeshaane, we have put a lot of thought into handcrafting each piece with utmost care, dedication and patience. Incredible things are done simply by hand because we believe there is value in what we are trying to achieve. It’s very organic and slow, but that's our core strength. After all, 'Things of beauty have no fear of time'! Each piece is specially handcrafted for you, thereby reducing waste, since items are not produced in advance. Hence, we would be unable to accept returns, unless the piece is damaged or defective.