The Origin Series

by Emma Shi, Founder & Origin Series Artist

The Collection Card included with every SILKAVA product.

When I looked at silk products, I kept finding the same two extremes: silk reduced to a generic commodity, often without the quality or authenticity of real silk; or silk marketed almost like medicine. Very few brands celebrated silk for what it truly is: a remarkable natural material with a rich history, thoughtful craftsmanship, and timeless beauty.

That's why the debut collection for SILKAVA is the Origin Series. Growing up in Suzhou, I raised silkworms myself as a child, one of many kids who did it as a popular after-school nature project. I watched a silkworm grow up eating mulberry leaves, spin the cocoon it would sleep in, and emerge reborn as a moth. I was moved by the quiet wonder of their lives, and by how diligently they created silk. There's a famous Chinese poem that uses the silkworm as a metaphor for devoted people to their missions: "春蚕到死丝方尽，蜡炬成灰泪始干" — The silkworm spins its silk until death; the candle's tears dry only when it burns to ash. From birth to the end of life, silkworms diligently eat, sleep, and create their delicate yet powerful thread.

I wanted to share that story, and to find the right way to tell it. On a recent trip to China, I brought home a few silkworms to raise again. Watching them eat mulberry leaves is a therapeutic thing. The sound they make is like one sheet of paper brushing against another. That sound led me to paper as a medium, and to papercutting. Papercutting is a beloved traditional art form, and it felt right for silk: you cut away what isn't essential and leave what matters most. A silkworm transforms mulberry leaves into fine silk thread; papercutting removes the excess and leaves the essential shape.

The process begins with pen-and-paper sketches of silkworms, mulberry leaves, and cocoons.

 

I started drawing my observations of the silkworm's lifecycle by hand, in pen, to mimic that cut-out effect. I wanted the shapes to be expressive rather than realistic, so I leaned toward abstraction. Again, leaving out the unnecessary and keeping the essential.

The motifs are then refined digitally.

They eventually become the Collection Card included with every SILKAVA product.

 

Observing silkworms also reminded me to be present. A silkworm does only one thing at a time for the majority of its life: eat, or sleep. It stays with the moment, without distraction. They are the opposite of the busyness of the modern age. They do one thing rather than having millions of thoughts in mind. They focus, and they produce a thread only they can make. This inspired our tagline: Silk with Intention. It's so easy to get carried away by everything around us and forget who we are, what we're here for, and what intention we want to set for this moment.

Silkworms at different stages of their life cycle, photographed at the Suzhou Silk Museum.

 

As you can see, the process began with pen and paper, then moved to the computer to digitize. Not AI-generated, but drawn from human observation and feeling. That's what SILKAVA wants to bring into the world: something intentionally made, rooted in silk's heritage and craftsmanship, designed for you today.