October 16, 2018
What is Vegan Silk?
There are so many alternative vegan materials these days. These non-animal products get made into shoes, handbags, and clothing, but where do silk scarves fit into all of this?
Protests to ‘save the silk worms’ are rare, but in a small village in the Assam region of India, it’s a priority as vegan silk production is their livelihood.

Although many of the vegan readily available products are simply substitutes, vegan silk, or Peace silk as it is also known, is the real product, only harvested differently, in a way that sustains the life of the silkworm.
As children we learn about the cute little caterpillar that surrounds itself in one single long strand of silk to form a cocoon. After sometime inside its temporary home, it eventually breaks free as a beautiful butterfly.
But that’s not how the story ends where commercial silk harvesting is concerned. The normal process starts with the silkworms being fed a diet of mulberry leaves. Once the worms start transforming in their cocoons - a process called pupating - they are collected and usually placed into boiling water; sometimes they may be exposed to hot steam too. This process needs to be precisely timed, to prevent the newly formed butterfly from emerging, breaking the cocoon and flying away free. If the insect burrows its way out of the cocoon, it breaks the long single filament that is needed to feed the spinning reel in silk production. It’s no surprise that the insect inside rarely survives at any stage of this process.



This different process produces a silk that is less shiny and smooth, but with all the thermal and longevity qualities expected in silk.
The entire process takes an extra 10 days and as a result increases the end cost of the product, but ultimately invests in a much more sustainable means of production for the long term. This is an essential consideration given that silk production is the primary income of almost everybody in the village.

We love to share what we learn when sourcing beautiful products at Finders and Makers. The entire village we visited came to greet us. They were all keen to show us the intricate process they follow to produce the beautiful vegan textiles we make available to you (even Queen Elizabeth II has one!).
Until next time,
Carina.
All photos copyright of Finders and Makers
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