From Mother's Loom to Private Company: Iaishah Rymbai's Eri Silk Journey in Ri Bhoi
Iaishah Rymbai, eri silk weaver with organic dye, Ri Bhoi, Meghalaya
ఈ కథ అనుసరించే ప్రశ్న:
“What happens when a skill learned at a mother's side becomes a registered company — and what does it take to keep the craft entirely within the family and entirely within the land?”
Iaishah Rymbai learned to weave from her mother, formalised it as a business in 2019, and now runs a private company with her children — raising eri worms, spinning thread, and colouring fabric with organic dye.
In Iaishah Rymbai's household, weaving was not something you were taught — it was something you absorbed. Her mother wove. All her siblings wove. They went to school and came home and wove. It was not a choice; it was the shape of daily life.
She began her eri silk business formally in 2019. By 2022, it had become a private company. The scale is still intimate — three to four days to weave a single stole — but the process is entirely self-contained. She raises her own eri worms in Ri Bhoi. She harvests the cocoons. She spins the thread. She dyes with organic material. Nothing comes from outside that she does not have to bring in.
The organic dye is what makes her work immediately recognisable. The colours are softer, deeper, more anchored in the natural world than synthetic alternatives. People who understand textiles notice it immediately.
Her children are now part of the business. The craft that came from one generation is moving into the next without interruption — which is, perhaps, the best definition of a living story.