How we knit
genuine Orenburg shawls
and why they are the best
Since 2009 our company has been producing genuine handmade Orenburg down shawls.
When you hold an Orenburg shawl in your hands, when you throw it over your shoulders, the impression is as special as the item itself. And you want to know: how is each such handmade masterpiece created? Who is behind the unique process of turning fine yarn into a warm, airy and delicately crafted fabric?
Here we will reveal the secrets and tell you how we do it
Unique Orenburg goat down
Products made of Orenburg down protect from cold at temperatures down to –45 degrees and below.
Orenburg fibre is one of the finest in the world: 14–16 µm (for comparison, cashmere is 16 µm).
The unique dry-warmth effect of Orenburg down is good for health.
The goats' special undercoat forms only in the climate and terrain of our Region.
Unique Orenburg goat down
And it all starts with the goat. A unique breed developed specifically in the Orenburg Region. The breed formed naturally over millennia and has undergone selective breeding in recent centuries.
Orenburg down is a unique material with special properties. Its ability to retain heat surpasses most known materials; a genuine down shawl will protect you even at extremely low temperatures below –45 degrees.
At the same time, Orenburg fibre is one of the finest in the world: the norm for Orenburg down is 14–16 µm, which surpasses in fineness even the famous cashmere (exactly 16 µm). In addition, Orenburg goat down is very rare. After all, only the special conditions of terrain and climate made the appearance of this breed possible and allow it to be bred. At the slightest deviation from the conditions of keeping, the undercoat loses its unique properties.
CRAFTSWOMEN —
THE HEART AND SOUL OF OUR COMPANY
More than 300 craftswomen already cooperate with the Shalnoy Orenburg down artel. Every day the number of knitters, spinners and needlewomen joining our ranks grows. For these women the Orenburg down shawl has always been their favourite occupation, and within the walls of the down production their craft has gained a second life and there is hope for the preservation of the craft.
Processing Orenburg goat down
Seasonal combing of one Orenburg goat takes from 2 to 6 hours. Orenburg down itself is a very rare material because of the characteristics of the breed and the seriously reduced livestock.
Not all the combed down will go into making products. After processing, washing and removing the guard hair, the volume of collected raw material decreases by one and a half times.
The down is sorted by hand; this process is continuous and takes several days for an average batch.
HOW TO OBTAIN A RARE MATERIAL IN THE REQUIRED VOLUME?
Seasonal goat combing begins in February–March. This is the period when it is necessary to mobilise all forces to obtain top-grade material.
It should be said that every trip for down is a step-by-step tour of farmsteads of different sizes scattered throughout the Oblast and even beyond, which means hundreds of kilometres of travel. And that is provided the places are already known and agreements have been reached. In reality, in many cases collecting down is a real expedition with scouting, research and interviews.
Some of our craftswomen keep goats themselves, preferring to make products on their own at every stage
But this is a great rarity, and we are talking about almost exclusive shawls produced at 3–4 items a year. Combing one down goat, by the way, takes 2–6 hours.
SELECTION AND PROCESSING OF DOWN
When the maximum amount of down has been collected, you can look at the resulting figure… and boldly reduce it by at least one and a half times. After all, not all of the volume will go into making products.
On arrival at the production site, the down is cleaned of foreign matter by hand, washed, combed, and sorted again.
The real volume of down obtained is what remains after all the cleaning and rejection work.
For example: making one openwork shawl “Orenburg Steppe” requires 430 g of clean white down, which can be obtained from no less than 600–650 g of raw down.
Only after all these processes is the clean down ready for spinning and plying.
Our shawls inthe exhibitions of museums around the world
Shalnoy Orenburg products have been presented in more than 30 museums in Russia and around the world. Some museum venues have made our Orenburg shawls part of their collections and included them in their permanent exhibitions. For museum visitors this is an opportunity to see what a genuine Orenburg down shawl should be like.
In 2018, Shalnoy Orenburg products were presented at 8 exhibition venues in Prato (Italy) as part of the large project “Interweavings of History. Orenburg Shawls from Prato to the Urals”. The down shawls attracted so much international attention that within a year our production was visited by guests, including from Italy. Many of them expressed a desire to master down knitting themselves and even achieved success; our joint works took part in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.
We provide information about every item of our production that has become part of an exhibition, and this list is regularly updated. For your convenience we have even created a separate category, “Museum Exhibits”. You can always find out in which museum your item was presented.
Spinning
down yarn
There are co-spun and non-co-spun (correct) methods of spinning.
Non-co-spun spinning is a complex method in which the down yarn is spun first and then twisted with the base thread.
The process of preparing the yarn is so complex and long that not all knitters want to take it on.
The separate profession of spinner is highly respected in the craft.
Spinning down yarn and twisting it with the base thread is a process whose complexity can be understood from a folk formula: most spinners readily take up knitting, but not every knitter will sit down to spin yarn. Among our craftswomen there are some who only spin, for example Valentina Ilyinichna.
Spinning is a long and complex process in which the down yarn is spun first, then twisted with the base thread for greater strength of the item. In openwork gossamer shawls and stoles we use viscose silk; in dense warm shawls and shawls, cotton thread.
In 20th-century down production (the time of the craft's greatest flourishing) there was a GOST standard: no less than 60% down for openwork items and no less than 70% for warm shawls. We have done everything we could to increase the goat-down content of our products in favour of less base, while maintaining the ideal strength and geometry of the down shawls.
Tested by the Pole of Cold
A genuine warm shawl made of unique Orenburg goat down is famous above all for its ability to protect from extremely low temperatures (–45 degrees and beyond).
What are the limits of an Orenburg shawl? This question was answered by our customer, who visited the so-called Pole of Cold (Oymyakon), the coldest place on Earth. The average air temperature here is minus 65 degrees Celsius, and the record temperature recorded is minus 77.8 degrees!
It was the most honest and harshest test, which the down shawls from Shalnoy Orenburg passed with honour. And of course we will be happy to tell you the story of the journey to Oymyakon.
How an Orenburg down shawl is knitted
Making one shawl takes from 200 hours of handwork. Some items are made no more than 3 a year because of their increased complexity.
Every stitch of a handmade shawl is knitted by the craftswoman to create the perfect pattern. The knitting is so fine that even the smallest gossamer shawl has at least 90,000 stitches.
In making our products we rely on the GOST standards and norms of 20th-century down production (we spent a long time studying historical and production archives).
80% of the craftswomen have been knitting since the age of 6, so their experience in the craft ranges from 40 to 80 years
All the charts for our products are developed together with the craftswomen and approved by the production. At the same time we welcome a creative approach; sometimes knitters propose their own designs that they would find interesting to work with. In this way we have already formed a whole range of signature items, each of which comes with a card signed by the craftswoman who conceived and knitted the shawl. Our bestseller, “Orenburg Steppe”, is one of these items; we are happy to introduce its author.
Even the smallest gossamer shawl takes an enormous amount of time. Every stitch is knitted by hand; the distance between stitches is minimal, as is the width of the stitches themselves, because only in this way can a perfectly beautiful and seamless pattern be obtained. In case of the slightest mistake, the fabric is unravelled and the process starts again. However, given the craftswomen's enormous experience, such mistakes are almost excluded. The number of stitches in the products reaches hundreds of thousands in one shawl. An average item takes a craftswoman 200 hours or more to knit. Below are examples of our shawls with the main labour parameters.
-
SHAWL "WHITE VIOLETS"
Shawl size 110×110 cm.
Production time 1.5 months
93 312 Stitches
-
OPENWORK SHAWL "ORENBURG STEPPE"
Shawl size 140×140 cm.
Production time 2 months
147968 Stitches
-
SHAWL "KEEPER OF TRADITIONS"
Shawl size 150×150 cm.
Production time 2.5 months
305470 Stitches
80% of our craftswomen pick up knitting needles at the age of 6 and have decades of experience behind them. Very many are holders of prestigious awards and titles, including “Master of Golden Hands” and “Honoured Artist of Russia”.
By constantly communicating with our craftswomen, we keep accumulating experience; our managers constantly interact and talk with the production staff, which is why they have an excellent understanding of the products and the craft. You too can get to know many of our craftswomen.
SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
For many craftswomen, working with our company is their only opportunity for additional income.
Finishing
the Shawl
After knitting, the item needs to be given its final shape
To give the item a finished look, about 3–5 more hours of work are required
Special frames are used to shape the shawl
The shawl stays stretched for about 48 hours on average
After an Orenburg shawl is knitted, it must be given its final shape and specified size.
To give the down item its size and shape, a special device is used — a frame, which is a strong wooden frame with fastenings. The finished item is carefully stretched on the frame.
The down shawl is left on the frame for 48 hours; after this time the item should acquire its final shape and perfect geometry.
handwork
at all stages of production
- Combing goats (more than 4 hours to comb one animal)
- Manual processing of down: sorting, washing, combing (at least 20 hours)
- Hand-spinning of down yarn (from 30 hours even for a small gossamer shawl)
- Hand-knitting of the shawl (from 1 week to 1.5 months per item)
- Stretching the shawl (48 hours on the frame to give the shawl its final shape)
Quality control
of our products
All products undergo 3-stage quality control and are checked by an experienced inspector.
Many shawls have already passed the Expert Assessment of Folk Art Crafts and are included in the Register of Items of Special Value for Folk and Art Crafts.
Absolutely all products have the State certificate “Appellation of Origin of Goods”.
Every order of yours is a ready-made gift. We accompany every shipment with branded souvenirs. Signature shawls come with a card signed by the craftswoman.
Delivery is available worldwide; a manager will choose the most convenient method for you.
Even with enormous trust in the craftswomen, every item undergoes mandatory multi-stage quality control.
At the first stage, the item is inspected at initial acceptance, practically right after being taken off the frame. The item is checked for any minimal defects and conformity to size and pattern. Only after this is it sent to the company's head office, where it is checked by an experienced inspector before being accepted into the warehouse. Here the procedure is repeated again, which rules out even minimal errors and inaccuracies at acceptance.
We send some samples to the State Expert Assessment of Folk Art Crafts. Such down shawls receive special recognition from leading art historians and experts of the craft at the regional and federal levels, after which they join the section “Items of Special Artistic Value Included in the State Register of Folk Art Crafts”
DELIVERY OF ORENBURG SHAWLS TO CUSTOMERS
Before shipping, items undergo the third and final stage of inspection, and only after that are they carefully packed and sent to the customer. Together with them we include branded Shalnoy Orenburg magnets and bags, which makes every order a ready-made gift.
We deliver our products all over the world, from Canada to Australia.
This is how a finished down shawl will reach you, a shawl whose story of creation you now know as well as we do
Creating every Orenburg down shawl is titanic labour and delicate work. But that is exactly what makes it so valuable. It is at once a cultural heritage of our Region, a true handmade masterpiece and simply a very prestigious gift whose value grows over the years because of the rarity of genuine items
Over many years of work we have managed, bit by bit, to gather together a fading craft and truly become the only company in the world that has managed to set up serial production of handmade items on as large a scale as is at all possible. We value the Orenburg down shawl and hope that this material has convinced you of its undeniable value too.
See our shawls in the catalogue
.link__to__shop {
position: absolute;
z-index: 5;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
-webkit-transform: translate(-50%,-50%);
-ms-transform: translate(-50%,-50%);
transform: translate(-50%,-50%);
display: -webkit-box;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: flex;
-webkit-box-pack: center;
-ms-flex-pack: center;
justify-content: center;
-webkit-box-align: center;
-ms-flex-align: center;
align-items: center;
width: 475px;
height: 70px;
font-weight: 500;
font-size: 24px;
line-height: 32px;
text-align: center;
-webkit-text-decoration-line: underline;
text-decoration-line: underline;
color: #000000;
background: #FFFFFF;
border: 1px solid #A29293;
max-width:100%;
margin-top:150px;
}