Kara is an online store supporting handloom weaving communities in Kerala, India. We accept PayPal and all major Credit Cards; Thanks for supporting us!
Team member Revathy with one of our weavers at her loom
Team: Indu, Sreedevi, Revathy, Suryakala (left to right)
Indu's House: if you trek till here, you get a Friends' Price bargain of our stuff!
Kara is a creative venture with a social cause, born out of the felt need to give the Kerala handloom industry a much-needed impetus.We are a group of women who work with independent teams of weavers across the state and small sets of rural tailors to create handmade home furnishings of the highest finish and quality.
This first-of-its-kind attempt in Kerala hopes to bridge the gap between this traditional weaving art form and a contemporary lifestyle.
Kara brings to you exclusively designed and woven table linens and bath items using a finely woven cotton towel material called thorthu, traditionally used as an ayurvedic body-wipe fabric.
Why handloom?
Handloom’s unique quality is that of the yarn which is of pure cotton variety suitable only for slow speed spinning and weaving process. This preserves the lustre, colour-holding capacity, absorbency, softness and durability of cotton products. It was this finesse and feel that made Indian cotton fabric so famous in earlier times.
So yes, we at Kara are crazy about these breezy, soft, handmade fabrics; sharing it with others is what we do best!
Happy shopping!
Team:
• Indu Menon (Social Scientist, Anthropologist, co-author of Women Weavers , 1983)
• B. Sreedevi (an Expert on Kerala handloom fabric and technique)
• Suryakala Satish (Packaging and product expert)
&
• Revathy Menon (Noted Indian Social Activist/Film Actor/Director of movies like Mitr: My Friend and Phir Milenge)
Assisted by:
• Chitra Gopalakrishnan (Graphic Designer, MFA France, MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art USA, Asst. Professor of Graphic Design at the Grand Velley State University, MI)
• Lakshmi Menon (Featured Gallery Artist, Interior/Product designer, USA)
Fabrication:
Our custom-designed fabrics are woven at different Government Weaving Co-Operative Units across Kerala. All stitching is done by teams of local tailors.
For queries, please contact us at info@karaweaves.com
Watch a brief video about our work featured on Daily Grommet on August 5, 2010!
Download Press Kit Here(.zip) : larger images of our work.
Updates (watch this space for more info and features!):
• Daily Grommet features the Kara Bathrobes!! August 8, 2010
• Better Homes and Gardens, May 2010 issue, Editor's pick!!!
• Kara in Danish, right here on this lovely blog by Anni; we love you!
• A Design Story's Fresh Picks for May 2010, thank you so much!!!!
• We found ourselves on Elizabeth's Flickr page, yay!
• Thanks Parvathy for featuring us on your fab blog!
• We're featured ondesign*sponge, thanks Grace!! yay!
• We are featured on Rang Décor, thank you so much Archana!!! :)
• Thanks for writing about us on your blog Katy!
• Infinite thanks to LuckyMag for featuring us on their list of Style Steals
• We would like to thank Pavitra at Masala Chai for featuring us!
• Thank you Travelicious for the super sweet write-up & for shopping with us!
• Thank you shopppers, for the overwhelming response!! We're thrilled to say we have orders from across the United States, Brazil, Australia, the UK, Belgium, Canada, Slovakia, Hong Kong and China. We love you for your support and continued interest in our work! :)
