Kota Doria · Est. Kaithoon

Quiet things,
made to be kept.

Handloom sarees thrown on pit looms in Rajasthan, and candles poured a few dozen at a time. Two crafts that reward patience — yours and ours.

See the weave

An undyed Kota Doria saree, folded and lit from one side — Fig. 01Khat, undyed — Kota, Rajasthan

A saree with a fine zari border, hung against a plain wall

Sarees

Eight pieces

Cotton in the weft, silk in the warp, meeting in an open square check you can read the light through.

A hand-poured candle burning in amber glass

Candles

Four scents

Soy wax, cotton wick, cured a fortnight before it leaves us.

Warp threads stretched on a wooden pit loom — Fig. 02 The warp, dressed for a nine-day saree

Made by hand

Nine days at the loom,
and no way to hurry it.

In Kaithoon, a village outside Kota, two people sit at a pit loom sunk into the floor. One throws the shuttle; one works the treadles. Between them they lay down about a hand’s width of cloth an hour. The check that emerges — the khat — is what makes Kota Doria: an open lattice of cotton and silk, strong enough to wear for thirty years and light enough to pass through a ring.