Since the world celebrates Mother's Day today, I looked up where it came from on Google. Anna Jarvis wanted to commemorate the death of her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis, who cared for soldiers on both sides during the American Civil War. So it fits very well into the present time in which we are living right now.

Climate disasters, forced migration, pandemics.... The list of self-made crises is quite long. Most of these problems are caused by the violence that underlies the way we produce and consume. By violence I mean boththedestruction of virgin forests, the dumping of plastic waste, and the exploitation of defenseless workers in anonymous and brutal supply chains. The combination of toxic masculinity, greed, and power is driving us to our doom.

• We need a more feminine way of life. By that, I don't just mean women-led businesses and organizations. I mean a more maternal way of doing things.
• More love and lessdestruction. In this cold and dark universe, this small planet is our only home. A more life-friendly and natural way of doing things than endless automation and the employment of more and more robots.
• More natural and less synthetic ingredients. It may have a shorter lifespan and not always look perfect, but one less chemical in ourbodies and in the environment is also one less problem for the world.
• Morebeauty and less mass production. Away from fast fashion, towards something that will stilllook beautifulin10 or 20 years.Less driven by market trends and more driven by the creativity of artisans. Less uniformity and more unique products thatgive more freedom toboth the creatorand the consumer.
• More mindfulness and less indifference. A more conscious and mindful approach to consumption. Consume less, but enjoy more.Celebratingself-care withbeautiful products made without harming nature and people. Mutual respect between producer and enjoyer instead of anonymous supply chains.

With all these principles in mind, we have developed our non-violent, hand-woven silk scarves.  

We use tussar silk, which is obtained from the larvae of silkworms that live on the mulberry tree. Once the caterpillar has spun its cocoon, they are collected from the trees and left in the sunlight until the silkworm transforms into a butterfly.

The silk thread is then hand-woven into fine silk scarves at a women's collective in the village of Champa in Chattisgarh, India. A group of about 40 women work together in a small handloom just a few hundred yards from their home. They work whenever they have time, and have a key to the facility so theycan come and goas theyplease. Each shawl is 2.2 meters by 0.6 meters and it takes about half a day to weave one. Artisans like Saraswati Bai use their creative freedom to make small changes toeach piece , which make each scarf unique.

The ends are then tied by hand before being dyed. Some scarves are hand painted with natural dyes such as turmeric or indigo. All in all, the work on each piece takes between 9 and 12 hours. We do not use machines or electricity in the process, as the hand loom is powered by hand and feet.

The scarves are packed in compostable bags made of potato starch. We offset the CO2 generated by transport to Germany and use DHL GoGreen for shipping within Europe. Our production is done in small batches so wecanensure quality while staying true to our principles. Growth is not an end in itself. Wewould rather not grow than lose focus on our values.

Saraswati Bai, one of the best weavers in the group

15% of the sales proceedsgo into a pot that takes care of the health of women and the education of their children. Since we are still at the very beginning, we want to sell our initial stock first and then determine measures such as health insurance for the women who work there or school assistance for the children as well as much more.

So this Mother's Day marks the beginning of a new āsmi chapter and I hope wecan make a small difference for a small group of women.