Eleven days at the loom

Warping takes a day and a half and happens outdoors, because the length of a warp needs more room than any workshop has. The yarn is stretched between pegs down a lane, sized with rice starch, and left to dry.

Only then does the loom come into it.

The part nobody photographs

Drawing each thread through the reed takes two people the better part of two days and produces nothing visible. It is the stage that decides whether the saree will be good.