What is peace silk/ahimsa silk?

Silk is such a beautiful and versatile material, and I knew from the beginning, that I wanted the contoured sleep masks to be made from silk, but when I was looking for suppliers, I was surprised to see how silk is made. Did you know that the traditional way to produce silk is to boil the cocoons with the silkworms inside? That seemed unnecessary to me (what a waste of silkworms!), so I started looking for alternative ways of making silk, and I found out about peace silk/ahimsa silk.

Peace silk is made without harming the silkworms, which are allowed to hatch and become silk moths. Although the silk moths will live only 5-10 days, it still felt somewhat better, than to boil the worms, so I decided to use this kind of silk for the sleep masks. It takes longer time, and it is a more expensive process, but no silk moths die in the process, which is why peace silk is also called non-violent silk.

I source the silk for my products from Cocccon, which is a German Indian venture. All the silk is certified organic, and instead of chemicals and pesticides they have developed a mix of traditional medical herbs to fight harmful insects and fungus. The silkworms feed on mulberry leaves, so in order to keep the worms safe from outside enemies, the mulberry trees are covered with big nets.

The silk production takes place in Jharkand, which is a region in the northeastern part of India. By providing the local population with employment in safe, clean surroundings at a fair salary, Coccon helps to fuel much-needed economic growth in the region.