Tune in to this podcast on the art of weaving and design

In Jaipur Rugs’ new podcast, the speakers offer a look into their own personal connection with India and its crafts. Pic/Facebook

To know and love a carpet, dhurrie or rug is to be overcome by its patterns and colours, and the texture under one's feet. And bringing sound into this mix is a series of podcast episodes narrated by writers such as Pico Iyer and Cosmo Samuel Brockway.

Nand Kishore Chaudhary's podcast, Jaipur Rugs, is not an encounter with jargon or dense history, but an almost lyrical episode on the Lehrata-Khet carpet by master weaver Maina Devi. Iyer calls India "the spiritual home of the intricate weave", finding similarities between classical music and carpets with their shared hypnotic patterns.

Pico Iyer

He informs the listener that the Lehrata-Khet, with its geometrical patterns in sheep wool and bamboo silk, is the first Indian creation to emerge as a finalist in the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize. The community that the weaver, who is in her 40s, comes from is not usually associated with the craft.

The name of her carpet translates to ‘fluttering/blowing farm', and was put together at Devi's studio amid a family farm where sometimes the only sound that can be heard is that of her loom. It is a story of numbers, of 2,00,000 asymmetrical Persian knots employed as part of a 2,400-year-old carpet-making tradition.

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