Cushion Covers

A cushion cover, in the Kashmiri tradition, is rarely just a cushion cover. It is a small canvas — a place where the same vocabulary of needle and thread that animates a shawl is allowed to settle into the rhythm of a room. The pieces gathered here are worked in wool on hand-loomed grounds in Srinagar workshops, their gardens and rosettes drawn from the same motif books artisans have kept for generations. Many borrow the slow, near-meditative discipline described in our note on Sozni needlework, while the weaving itself shares lineage with the loom traditions explored in the soul of Kani weaving. For a sense of how such textiles move from heirloom to home, read our guide to layering home textiles.