National Handloom Day: Weaving Nagaland's incredible wild nettle to fabric

Indigenous women of the Chakhesang tribe from a Naga village weave nettle shawls on back-strap looms. The fiber-to-fabric journey is self-sustaining. Stinging nettle is foraged from the wild once a year, the fiber is then thigh-reeled and hand-spun into yarn, softened, bleached, and strip-woven on back-strap looms. These are joined skillfully at the edges to make large shawls, which are not only warm but waterproof too.