Weave story · 01
The border that is
woven twice
A korvai Kanjivaram has a border in a colour the body never touches. There is no printing, no dyeing after the fact and no seam. It is two sarees woven at once and then locked together by hand, thread by thread, and it is the reason the colour is still there in forty years.
Two weavers, one joint
The border warp is a separate colour, locked into the body thread by thread with a hand-thrown shuttle. No powerloom can do it. Two weavers work the same loom, and the pallu alone takes eleven days because the motif changes every four inches.
How to tell a korvai from a copy
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I
Pull the border
A woven korvai joint resists and springs back. A stitched or printed border puckers along the seam.
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II
Read the reverse
The motif on the back should be as clean as the front. A jacquard copy leaves floating threads.
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III
Burn a thread from the fall
Pure mulberry silk smells of burnt hair and leaves a crushable ash bead. Polyester melts and beads hard.
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IV
Scratch the zari
Half-fine zari shows silver under the gold. Imitation zari shows copper or plastic.