Silk production is new for Ethiopia. The first eri silk worm eggs were brought to Ethiopia from Japan only in 2001. Considered one of the “wild” silk worms in the world, the eri worm eats only castor leaves. Since the castor plant grows abundantly in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian agricultural ministry has been promoting eri silk production as a supplementary income generation activity for farmers and women's groups.

The centuries old weaving tradition in Ethiopia has enabled Sabahar (meaning "Silk of Sheba") to create beautiful and unique pieces both to wear and for the home from this silk. In addition, the ancient art of natural dyeing is being revived by Sabahar to obtain colours from nature. Sabahar scarves and shawls are made from these eri and mulberry silks, produced locally in Ethiopia as well as imported. The Ethiopian cotton is hand-spun and produced by both large and small-scale producers. Equitable employment and environmentally friendly production and processing practices are values central to the company.



At Sabahar:

• traditional methods of weaving and spinning are used.
• an effort is made to employ people who might otherwise have difficulties finding work and stable income.
• employees benefit from: fair pay, access to medical fund, transportation allowance, & providence savings fund.
• production is made as environmentally sustainable as possible.

The journey of your scarf
In the home of a rural family, tiny eri silk worm eggs hatch into tiny caterpillars and begin 3 to 4 weeks of munching on castor leaves that are picked and brought to them by the family. At about 6cm long, the worms spin their cocoons – a 24 hour process and the brown/black adult emerges in 10-15 days. Each female adult lays about 300 eggs, continuing this productive cycle.

The cocoons are cleaned by boiling, and are hand spun on drop spindles. Local women can spin 50 cocoons in an hour, resulting in about 20 grams of silk. To make one silk scarf, about 120 gms of silk are needed… which comes from the joint effort of 300 cocoons and 6 hours of spinning time. After weaving, marigolds, mescal flower, safflower, eucalyptus bark, ivy leaves, onion skins, henna and coffee are some of the natural plant products used to dye the completed scarf.

The story of silk
Silk is one of the oldest fibres known to humanity.

The discovery that silk could be woven is credited to the Lady Xi Ling Shi, the 14 year old bride of the Emperor Huang Ti (the so-called 'Yellow Emperor').

One day in 2640 BC, according to Confucius, she was sitting under a mulberry tree, drinking a cup of tea into which a silk cocoon fell from above. She noticed the delicate fibres start to unravel in the hot liquid. Curious, she began to to 'reel' or unravel a silk cocoon and use the filament to create a yarn for weaving.

Whether or not the legend holds true, it is certain that the earliest surviving references to silk production place it in China and that for nearly 3 millennia, the Chinese had a global monopoly on silk production.

Silk is an animal fibre produced by certain insects to build their cocoons and webs. Although many insects produce silk, only the filament produced by the mulberry silk moth, Bombyx mori , and a few others in the same genus, is used by the commercial silk industry.

At Sabahar, they use these and other "wild" silks such as eri and tussar to weave the scarves and fabrics. Eri silk behaves very much like cotton and gives a wonderful yarn. The qualities of eri and other silks are emphasized when dyed with the rich palette of natural dyes.