These were made consciously by adopting and embracing the pace of nature, in the authentic spirit of slow fashion and honoring all life.

Matka Silk is one kind of Peace Silk. Peace or ahimsa silk harvesting allows the completion of the metamorphosis of the silkworm to the butterfly, while in the conventional process the cocoons are steamed, boiled, or dried in the sun, killing the larvae inside to get a fine, smooth and continuous filament.

Here, the peace silk moths reach full maturity and naturally break out of their cocoons. So, in the process of harvesting, the cocoons sustain damage during the escape of silkworm moth, resulting in a coarse and uneven, irregular silk filament.

The amount of usable silk derived from each cocoon is reduced. As the moths are allowed to age to full maturity, the production of peace silk also takes slightly longer than regular silk production.

Size: 32X 68 inches

Process

These matka silk scarves are a good example of land to loom initiative where the harvesting of the cocoons, dyeing in natural colors and hand-weaving is all done locally in West Bengal, India. Artist Ajit Kumar Das dyed the silk yarns using a range of colors derived from natural sources like Pomegranate skin, marigold, turmeric, onion skin, catechu, myrobalan, madder root, alizarin and indigo. Alum is used as a mordant to accomplish color fastness.