Luxuriously opulent, this glorious twilight-colored silk is so fine that you can see through it (not an exaggeration -- when I drape the fabric over my computer screen, I can still read the text!). I can pass half a yard through my wedding ring with room to spare, and it feels and looks so magnificent.

Handwoven on antique looms in a small town in India, where members of a women's cooperative create this beautiful fabric as part of their way to support their families and educate their children. This luminously glorious silk is almost translucent, as you can see -- Clarity is holding a piece about six inches in front of her and you can see her smile even though her face is still fascinatingly obscured. Perfect for scarves, lingerie, veils, blissful curtains, and so much more. It weighs in at just barely less than one ounce per square yard. This is the same fabric as our Amity Peace Silk, but colored with AZO-free dyes.

Note that this is a natural, hand-loomed fabric and frequent irregularities (which some less-imaginative people might call flaws) are to be expected. Indeed, they're part of the charm!

To the left, you can see Clarity draped in a simple, unhemmed piece of this fabric. What a quick way to dress up an outfit! (Her modeling gig convinced her to make an actual scarf for herself. The fabric's simply gorgeous and it'll be so simple to make a stunning scarf, just by hemming the edges. If she wants to get really fancy on the edges she can, but the fabric really needs no embellishment.)

Tussah silk, also known as "peace silk", is wonderful not only because of its unique sheen and hand but also because, unlike in the creation of traditional silks, the majority of the silkworms are not killed in the fabric's production. Instead of a domesticated silkworm that eats only mulberry leaves, the tussah/tussar moths are wild and larger (with a wingspan of up to 6"). They live on oak and juniper leaves, and the oak's tannin produces a light gold or tan colored silk. Tussah silk is generally denser and more insulating than spun silk, and is less processed. When the moth hatches from the cocoon it breaks the filament length, which makes the fibers short and coarse instead of the longer, more lustrous ones you'll see when the silkworms are killed. The fabric tends to have irregular slubs and unravel easily, so you'll want to serge or hem the edges before washing.

We've called this fabric "Amity," or friendship silk, because choosing it is much friendlier to the silkworms. It's also sold as Ahimsa silk. Ahimsa, for those of us who might not know, is a Sanskrit term meaning non-violence.