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Cocccon – crafts loom

About

A FEW WORDS ABOUT US

Cruelty free silk Guilt-free fashion

Social Entrepreneurship, turned organic silk company Cocccon crafts & loom has changed the way world perceives sustainable fashion. This unique business model has created abundant employment opportunities in rural parts of India and expanded sustainable fashion choices beyond organic cotton or hemp with high quality silk.

The invention of organically produced cruelty free silk has made a large impact on sustainable luxury market. Fairly paid and highly skilled artisans at Cocccon have created wonders with production of luxurious cruelty free silk.
This Indo-German venture is based on a social responsibility platform, where sustainable utilisation of manpower, ecology and natural resources is continuously carried out.

Now in its ninth year, this project has greatly enhanced its’ position in international sustainable fashion and living standards of the project members. Our weavers have a comfortable lifestyle and their children are attending local schools. The women in the group are able to adapt their new professional skills allowing for social and economic self-dependency

As Cocccon do not use any chemical substances on the host tree for silk worms, there is possibilities of double crop production. Furthermore, cultivation of rice and potato has been successfully completed along with our host trees. Ecologically, the entire region appears significantly greener than previous times.

Introduction

Social entrepreneurship project Cocccon was founded in 2012 by Germany based Indian fashion designer Chandra Prakash Jha. After spending almost, one decade in the Indian and international fashion market, he redirected his attention over to his own native state Jharkhand, where economic and social development is far away from reality.

This Indo-German venture is based on a corporate social responsibility platform, where sustainable utilisation of manpower, ecology and natural resources is applied

How we do it

Project Cocccon is a modern form of rural cooperation. It has decentralised production, which allows the silk farmers, spinners, weavers etc. to work directly from their own areas. All these different units are well connected with centralised headquarters. The storage of cocoons, yarns and ready textiles situated at the headquarters.





Sericulture of Peace silk or non-violent silk

Sericulture or silk farming is the rearing of silkworms to produce silk. It is mainly occurring in free nature and in some cases, indoor. In this process, the use of any kind of pesticides or genetic spray over leaves or trees is not performed. To keep silkworms safe from harmful insects or birds, large mosquito netting is attached to protect each tree where the silkworms live and breed. In some cases, Bio-Spray is used.

Once cocoons are ready, they are placed indoors on a bamboo platform. In case of Tussar silk, the cocoons are hung vertically from the ceiling using jute strings. In approximately one week, silk butterflies (moth) hatch out themselves or in some cases the cocoons need to be pierced by well-trained staff. After checking each empty cocoon, they are forwarded to our degumming department. That is why our silk is known as Peace silk or non-violent silk.

The process of eliminating “Gum (sericin)” and impurities from raw silk is known as degumming of silk. This is done by adding natural bio soap in the hot boiling water. Occasionally hydrogen peroxide is used to make different shades of silk yarn uniform. This is ecofriendly and approved by REACH & GOTS. The use of toxic metals during the degumming process of ´silk- weighting´ to make silk yarns heavier by including Chromium, Barium, Lead, Iron or Sodium magnesium is not permitted and completely forbidden in our production

Project Cocccon promotes silk-weaving on Handloom to generate employment in rural India and to reverse migration from big-cities. Around 90 handlooms are in action any time and another 40 reserved for peak season. Eight out of twenty power looms have been upgraded with solar powered motors. Spinning and reeling is completely processed either manually or with solar machines. This makes 70% of our spinning and weaving operation zero-carbon.

Packing and storing of the product is mainly done with jute bags or reclaimed cardboards. Transport of cocoons or ready yarns to weavers in different areas of Jharkhand is done by public transport state roadways or Indian railway.

Water usage is minimised in our production process with reclaiming used water by filtering the old used water. Residue from cocoon degumming is used as compost for agriculture.

Ecological aspect

Fungicides and pesticides sprays are not used on the host tree Arjun and Mulberry as they are very toxic for ecology and dangerous for biodiversity.

Towards sustainable environment, health and development certain innovative technologies have been developed to control pests and fungus from the host plant Arjun. The Arjun tree is covered with a large net to keep it safe from predators.

A liquid solution has been prepared by blending plants with medicinal properties such as Guizotia abyssinica (ramtilla), Azadirachta indica (neem), Brassica juncea (India mustard). This unique blend displays 90% of similar outcomes as the chemical fungicides and pesticides yet without any toxic side effects towards the ecosystem. This is also effective in curing root rot disease in the host tree.

The largest advantage of using non-toxic chemicals over the previous four years in our farming has seen a tremendous growth of grass on the soil, which is used for cattle feed. Furthermore, the excess (bed refusal) silkworm rearing activity is used for cattle feed. Additionally, silkworm litter or faucal matter is utilized as high-class organic manure for farming. Compost from waste Arjun leaves are considered as nutrient-rich organic fertilizer for different regional agriculture in east India.

GOTS certified Eco-friendly zero impact digital printing

We have 2 digital printing machines in our factory. Both are custom made printing system for peace organic silk. This German-Japanese combination is the best in sustainability. Inks are GOTS certified and of zero impact on nature and human skin. This system consumes very small amount of ink, electricity and water. Our printing floor is made with zero-waste facility. Wastewater from printing is recycled/ reused for further use through in-house bio-ETP plant.