A skink shoots past M Susheela, disappearing behind a clump of logs behind her. Seated on the mud floor, she continues to weave, chuckling at my panic. “Relax, it’s harmless,” she assures me, sliding the palm-sized shuttle through a sheet of cotton threads at the pit loom. “I’ve seen worse.” The threads — a combination of black and olive green — will take the shape of a jamakkalam that is part of an export order for her employer, Thillaiyappa Textiles.
From Weave: A Bhavani Tribute at the London Fashion Week 2025
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Special arrangement
It is unlike the colour scheme of the typical Bhavani jamakkalam, and signals a shift from tradition. Such experiments are commonplace at the thari kottagai where Susheela works. The space holds tile-roofed weaving sheds where 42 weavers work on 20 looms in Bhavani, 106 kilometres from Coimbatore.There are around 30 weaver cooperative societies in and around the town that makes the GI-tagged jamakkalams, with nearly 200 weavers working in nearby villages such as Kuruppanaickenpalayam, Paruvachi, Anthiyur, and Periyamolapalayam.
