Every year, we are commissioned by Kanakavalli to conceptualise the art that accompanies their annual yearly desktop planner that goes out to their customers. Last year we did a very special series of illustrations, inspired by vintage botanical cards of the various flora one sees represented as stylised motifs on the kanjivaram.

For the coming year, the Kanakavalli 2020 calendar features a commissioned series of art photographs by The Ekavalli Foundation, collected over several field trips to Kanchipuram through which we hope you can discover the beauty in the elegant and intricate nuances of the elements of weave .

These images have been presented on the calendar without captions in order to underline their often unsung provenance. So too, offering pause for thought, is the deliberate absence of the many hands and skills that manifest this craft.

From tied bundles of just-dyed iridescent silken yarn and the dull glow of spun metallic zari, to the elaborate infrastructural orchestration of warp and weft on the loom, a symphony of the instruments that bring the kanjivaram to life feature in our 2020 calendar photo essay.