Banarasi Art

The House

The Craft of Banaras

Forty days, two artisans, one saree.

From Graph to Loom

How a Banarasi is Born

Five stages, unchanged in six centuries.

01

The Design

An artist draws the motif on graph paper — naksha — translating Mughal florals and jaal lattices into a weavable map.

02

The Punch Cards

The design is encoded onto jacquard punch cards that guide the loom, thread by thread — an analog algorithm centuries old.

03

The Warp

Thousands of fine silk threads are dressed onto the loom, a painstaking setup that can take days before a single weft is woven.

04

The Weave

Master weaver and assistant interlace silk and pure zari by hand. An intricate saree can take forty days to complete.

05

The Finish

Floating threads are hand-cut on the reverse, the saree is washed, pressed and inspected — ready to become an heirloom.

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