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Eva-power My guest today is Eva Power, Founder of The Ethical Silk Company in Dublin, Ireland. We’ll be talking about the benefits of silk as an alternative to synthetic fibers, and silk production. Eva uses only silk that is produced in a way that is toxic-free, animal friendly, and fair trade. “The Ethical Silk Company produces 100% eco-friendly & ethically made mulberry silk products, where no silkworms are harmed or killed in the production process, resulting in beautiful natural mulberry silk. All tailoring is done in the Nano Nagle Tailoring Unit in Theni, India. This tailoring unit is run by the Presentation Sisters, where they teach women various crafts including tailoring as part of the local Women’s Federation. This Women’s Federation aims to empower the women through self-help groups.” www.theethicalsilkco.com

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TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Ethical Silk

Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Eva Power

Date of Broadcast: March 04, 2014

DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. It is toxic out there. There are a lot of toxic chemicals and a lot of things. We do need to pay attention to that. We do need to know the difference between what’s toxic and what’s not toxic because we all want to make choices in our lives where we do the right thing, where we do the good thing, where we do the thing that makes us healthy and happy. And we can choose consumer products that do not have toxic chemicals in them.

We can make our homes into havens where it’s totally toxic free.

I’ve been living without toxic chemicals for over 30 years. And you can do it too. That’s why I have this show. And that’s why I choose my guest, to tell us how we can do that. We discuss toxic chemicals, their health effects and the products that don’t have them or alternative things that we can do because we don’t always have to buy a consumer product.

Today is March 4th, Tuesday, March 4th 2014. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida. And my guest today, what she does is that she sells silk products. Some people are electing to use silk because of the ethical things that go on with the making of silk. Silk is a natural fiber, and it is a good alternative to synthetic fibers made from crude oil. And that’s why I wanted to have her on the show, because this is a natural fiber. And she’s doing this in a special way. She’s going to tell us about that today.

Her name is Eva Power. She’s the Founder of the Ethical Silk Company in Dublin, Ireland. So she’s talking to us all the way across the Atlantic Ocean in Ireland.

Hi Eva.

EVA POWER: Hi Debra.

DEBRA: You sound really good, all those many thousands of miles away.

EVA POWER: Good! Well, hopefully for now anyway. Hopefully, the line doesn’t crash on us or anything.

DEBRA: Well, we’ll just hope for that.

So Eva, I’m interested in two things. How did you get interested in doing things ethically and in a non-toxic way and why did you choose silk.

EVA POWER: Well, I suppose it actually started with the silk. It was only when I started researching the company or the start-up of the company that I decided, for my own personal wants and beliefs, to do it a certain way.

I have family in India. So I’m used to my aunt sending us back silk. And my mother would always sleep with a silk pillowcase on her pillow. She said it was really good for her skin and her hair and just the benefits of the natural fiber. And apparently, my grandmother would wear a silk headscarf on her hair as well, and it was good for her hair.

So, the idea initially became—well, we started to make silk pillowcases. And then, I watched a documentary on silk production, and I saw how on regular silk production, all the silkworms, they make a little cocoon around them, pretty much, they’re boiled alive in order for them to extract the maximum amount of silk threads from each cocoon. And it was just when I saw this that I just thought it was awful. It was this torture to all these little animals.

So I just thought, “Okay, well, I’ll just start researching and see if I could find an alternative.”

So, I find this one manufacturer in India that does this particular eco-friendly mulberry silk. What they do is they wait until the silkworm has gone through its metamorphosis, it turns into a moth. And then, it pierces a hole in the cocoon and leaves, and it continues its natural life cycle. So at the end, you’re left with a cocoon that is broken. It’s broken threads instead of one, long, continuous thread. You don’t get as much of a yield per cocoon.

So it’s a different type of silk in a way. It’s actually softer than regular silk. It’s not the real saffrony shiny one.
When I found this one manufacturer, I asked him for samples. He sent them to me. And when I saw them, it wasn’t what I was used to, that sort of saffrony look. But I was just like, oh god, this is beautiful. So I was really happy with it. I was happy with how he produces everything. I was just thinking, okay, I can go with this. It was an alternative for me that I felt comfortable to work with. If I’m going to run a company, I want to be proud of it and run it in a certain way.

DEBRA: Well, it’s very interesting to me that you say that because one of the things that I found is that there is a difference between a thing that is produced in a more natural like when you were describing it even ethics aside (and I totally understand your ethical viewpoint and the ethical viewpoint of others, and I agree with that).

But one of the things that I find so interesting is to do something according to its natural process. I haven’t heard this story before. It’s just now I’m hearing this for the first time. But I love this, the way instead of killing the worm, the process lets it go through its natural life cycle. And then, what’s left at the end is the cocoon. And then, you take the cocoon and work with what nature has provided in that leftover home for the silkworm so to speak.

EVA POWER: Exactly! You’re not only impacting only yourself. You’re using what nature has provided.

DEBRA: Right! What I wanted to say from this is that, often, what nature has provided doesn’t look like what we’re accustomed to because what we’re accustomed to is industrial products. Either they’re made from crude oil through an industrial process or even when you take a natural fiber or a natural material and you put it through an industrial process, it looks like industrialized. And that’s what we’re accustomed to.

I’ve never seen your fabric, but I can just imagine how beautiful it is in its own non-industrial way. You see what I’m saying? It’s really in its natural state because of when it’s taken in the life cycle of the moth. I think that that’s lovely. That’s just the kind of thing that I like. I like to feel that I’m in alignment with those natural processes and not interrupting them. That’s just beautiful. A beautiful, beautiful story.

EVA POWER: Well, thank you, yeah. I know it’s true because I actually do have some customers that come up to me, they’ll be honest and they’ll say, “Oh, I don’t care about the silkworm.” I’m like, “Okay. Well, fine. But do you prefer the fabric?” They’re like, “Oh, yes. They’re beautiful!” I’m like, “Well then, even if you’re not in any way bothered by the actual process of the finished product, in my eyes, it’s a superior product as well.”

And I agree with what you said, that you’re working with let’s say a finished product from nature and something that is natural, sort of natural in its production.

DEBRA: Yes. Yes, I just love that. I just love that. I guess, for me, I have a thing about wanting to step outside of the industrial world and do things just as close to nature as I can. And this looks like a product that is one of those rare products in the world that is that way.

I’ve had other guests on where they’re doing similar things with their own materials, but this is really beautiful. I have an affinity for silk because my father—I don’t know when he started doing this—my father used to wear a raw silk scarf, just the natural color, a raw silk scarf. He may have picked that up from my great aunt who spent quite a lot of time in India. I don’t know if that’s something that they did there.

But anyway, I spent all my childhood of my father wearing this raw silk scarf. And then, when I got older, got one of my own. And they’re just beautiful! There’s a difference between the shiny silk that you make (like a silk shirt). But this raw silk is very soft and [inaudible 08:40]. And the more you wash it, the more comfortable it becomes. I just think it’s one of the most beautiful fabrics in the world.

EVA POWER: Yeah, exactly. And also, I love natural fabrics. I love 100% cotton, 100% wool. They’re so much more comfortable to wear just next to your skin. They’re breathable. It’s synthetic stuff, [inaudible 09:04]

DEBRA: I love natural fibers. I just love them. One of the things that I learned recently about silk is that, like wool, it is naturally fire retardant; that cotton and linen and hemp will burn, but silk and wool don’t. So if people are looking for wanting something that’s fire retardant, silk is a good fabric that won’t catch on fire.

EVA POWER: Yeah. And that’s something that I’ve noted on the website because I sell products for children as well. Yeah, exactly, it’s fire retardant. And it doesn’t attract dust mites either which is a great thing. And it’s hypoallergenic. So it’s so nice especially for young babies next to their new skin.

DEBRA: We need to take a break, but we’ll be right back. My guest today is Eva Powers. She’s the Founder of the Ethical Silk Company. And that’s TheEthicalSilkCo.com. She’s in Dublin, Ireland, but they do ship to the USA if you want to take a look at her website.

I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. And we’ll be right back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. My guest today is Eva Power, Founder of the Ethical Silk Company in Dublin, Ireland. We’re talking about silk.

Eva, tell me, are there any toxic chemicals used in the regular production of silk—I mean, besides the ethicalness of when the silk is taken? Can you tell us more about how ordinary silk is produced?

EVA POWER: Regarding the chemicals, I think that would probably depend on different production units if you know what I mean. Other places might use pesticides or sprays just to get the leaves (like the leaves that the silkworm feeds on) to stimulate them to grow more.

So, to be honest, I think that would just depend on the different production. I just know in the silk that my manufacturer makes, there are no chemicals or toxins used in the production. The only thing they do use is a little bit of soap. And at the end, what happens is, when the silkworm turns into a moth, in order for it to leave the cocoon, it secretes a type of a gum that makes the hole in the cocoon, and this gum, they just use a little bit of soap just to get rid of this. So that’s the only thing that they use in this production.

So yeah, in regular silk production, I don’t know.

DEBRA: Well, it seems to me like—I mean, I never researched this, but it seems to me like it’s in a natural environment that the worm spins in the mulberry trees and they’re spinning their cocoons, there might be some pesticides used. But I don’t know, I don’t know.

But anyway, yours is just natural.

EVA POWER: Numerous times, I’ve actually gone back to the manufacturers just to say, “Just to clarify, can we go through everything again?” And I’ve been over to the production unit as well. He just said no. He said that little bit of soap is necessary because that gum is quite a sticky gum just because obviously that actually—not that it burns the silkworms to get it, but it creates the hole in the cocoon in order for the moths to leave.

DEBRA: Tell us about some of the benefits of silk.

EVA POWER: Well, it’s a natural protein fiber. It’s got 18 essential amino acids in them. And they’re really good for your cell metabolism. It speeds up your cell metabolism. So that’s the whole idea behind it being anti-aging. It delays the aging process.

And silk doesn’t draw moisture away from your skin and your hair the way that let’s say cotton would. And you don’t wake up with those creases down your face and. So I suppose that was one of the reasons behind why I wanted to do the silk pillowcases. It’s just so good for your skin and your hair.

DEBRA: Ooh… I was wondering because I’ve heard you say this several times about the skin and the air, but I was trying to figure out why is it that it’s better for skin and hair.

EVA POWER: Yeah. Well, I suppose it’s the natural protein fiber. It’s just a natural fiber.

Actually, a lot of the benefits—because it does sound quite fantastic when you list them out. But all the benefits, you can actually trace them back to the silkworm inside this cocoon. It all makes sense when you actually think of the actual nature, inherent nature, of silk. It’s a natural temperature regulator as well. So it’ll cool you down if you’re too hot, and it warms you if you’re too cold. And it also is [inaudible 14:08].

If you think about the little silkworm that makes this cocoon, and then it has to incubate in that in order to let’s say go through the metamorphosis, that’s just nature’s way of protecting this creature, that it doesn’t attract dust mites and these other insects. And also, it’s temperature-regulating. So it actually keeps it in a nice temperature in order for it to go through its change.

Again, with the amino acid stuff, they speed up the cell metabolism. This little silkworm, its cells need to be [inaudible 14:45] to help them go through the metamorphosis. Its skin cells needs to be invigorated to actually go through the next change if you know what I mean.

DEBRA: Yes, I do. I totally understand.

I was just thinking about like I have slept on cotton pillowcases for more than 30 years. Prior to that, I was just an average American consumer who knew nothing about anything except to just buy whatever looked pretty to me.

And so I was always sleeping on polyester cotton sheets because they were pretty.

And then, I started sleeping on cotton flannel sheets. And they were so comfortable. I’ve never slept on a silk pillowcase. But they were so comfortable in comparison to this polyester.

And then, I go and stay in a hotel, and the polyester in those hotel sheets is so scratchy that actually my face ends up being red in the morning from scratching on the pillowcases. And as much as I love to travel, I’m always happy to come back to my cotton pillowcases. And I even now, in hotels, will just put the cotton towel from the bathroom on my pillowcase because I didn’t want to sleep on those pillowcases like that.

So, I can imagine that if you have this fiber as you’ve just described that has all those qualities of nurturing the little silkworm into a moth, the fiber still has those qualities, and if you’re sleeping next to those qualities, and your cheek is rubbing up against that instead of some scratchy polyester, then that would have a very different effect on how you sleep and what your face looks like in the morning. That just makes sense to me.

EVA POWER: Exactly! When I go away, I actually bring a pillowcase with me. It just goes in the luggage. They’re so small to take and I just travel with them. I have a number of customers that have come back to me that have admitted to like, “I bring it away with me.” I bring it with me as well.

DEBRA: Well, I’ll probably do that too.

EVA POWER: I understand. But I’ve actually had a lot of ladies come back saying they’re actually sleeping better using these silk pillowcases. One lady came back saying, she said, “Look, for the last 15 years, I’ve been waking up every single night,” and she’s like, “I don’t actually wake up sleeping on these.”

I’m actually not sure which factor to attribute it to. I do think a good part of it is the temperature regulating. At night time, when you sleep, your temperature can fluctuate. So the silk could help cool you down if you’re too hot and warm you up if you’re too cold. And also, the fact that it’s hypoallergenic and it doesn’t attract dust mites.

Sometimes, it’s just a small factor that can be the trigger to wake you up at nighttime or disturb your sleep.

So, I’m not sure which one it is for this particular lady. But yeah, she brings the pillowcase when she travels now.

DEBRA: We need to go to break. We’ll take a break and come right back. My guest is Eva Power, Founder of the Ethical Silk Company. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And you’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And my guest today is Eva Power from the Ethical Silk Company. And we’re talking about ethical silk, silk that Eva sells, that is made by allowing the silk worm to go through the entire life cycle and come out as a moth, and then the cocoon is used to make a beautiful, beautiful silk.

Eva, you have a lot of information on your website about different aspects of silk. I’m looking at your blog. And one of the things that you talk about is about the dying of silk. Give us more information about that.

Hello? Eva, are you there? Aha! It sounds like we’ve lost Eva.

Okay! So, my producer is calling her back. So let’s just hold on for a second. I’m looking at her website. And she’s talking about lots of things on her blog here. It seems to me from talking to her that she’s very interested about the importance of sleep and that she got into this wanting to know about silk because of wanting to produce silk pillowcases.

And the benefits of silk pillowcases, we were talking before the break about how that you can actually sleep better.

Now, I haven’t ever slept on a silk pillowcase, but she has a blog post here about the importance of sleep. She says:“Throughout antiquity, we have always been fond of an afternoon snooze. Naps have been enjoyed as far back as Roman times, though it more recent times, they have been getting a bad reputation. It’s thought to be a sign of laziness or taking it easy. It seems the Spanish have been the main folk at the forefront of keeping the mid-day snooze an integral part of the day. However, in recent years, research has shown that there are far more advantages to having a mid-day snooze than previously thought.”

And I have Eva back. Are you there, Eva?

EVA POWER: Hi there, Debra. Yeah.

DEBRA: Hi!

EVA POWER: I don’t know what happened there.

DEBRA: Well, this is to be expected on live radio and considering that you’re so far away.

Okay, good. So we’re back. And what I wanted to know was—I was looking at your blog during the break. And you have a post here about dying silk. You want to tell us more about that?

EVA POWER: Yeah, at the moment, the only silk I use is the natural color. There are no chemicals or dyes in them. And I just had so many people inquire about dying silk. It’s just something that I’m looking into at the moment.

Now, the products that I have for sleeping are like the pillowcases and the cot sheets. I’m never going to dye them because I just think if it’s something you’re sleeping on, the less chemicals, the better. And also, if it’s something you’re putting a baby on or wrapping a baby in, obviously, the less chemicals, the better.

And also, when you dye a natural fiber, you can tend to weaken it. That’s one reason why I will predominantly just stay with the natural color. And it’s lucky that the natural color is a beautiful sort of ivory, shiny finish.

DEBRA: I love the color just of the natural fiber. It’s so beautiful.

EVA POWER: Yeah, it is lovely. It is really lovely. I mean, if it was a horrible color, I might’ve had to look at things differently. But anyway, it works well.

So I just started looking up the dyes. And obviously, the nicest dye to use will be the natural dye [inaudible 21:43].

And I did look into that, but the dyes run in the wash. And I just know—Irish people anyway—just won’t deal with that.

DEBRA: I know. Yeah, me too, no.

EVA POWER: There’s nothing worse than putting it on the wash, and let’s say, the colors run and it run through everything. I know also, the one piece that you have, the colors might run out of it, so it’s not a consistent color. So that’s bad. I was just like, “Look, I want to produce products that are usable, very usable, for everyone, and not something that you have to really take too much care of. These are every day products. How often do you wash a pillowcase or a sheet?” or stuff like that.

So, I am constantly researching to see if there are other natural dyes that can be locked in (like color fast). But it’s sort of trial-and-error at the moment.

DEBRA: It is! And one of the things, again, going back to what I said earlier about appreciating what nature has to give to us is that colors are beautiful. But I think that we’re accustomed to having everything be so colorful because, again, of the synthetic dyes. A lot of those colors that we’re accustomed to seeing are coming from toxic chemicals and heavy metals and those things. And so we want everything to be colorful because that’s what we’re accustomed to.

EVA POWER: Exactly, yeah.

DEBRA: And I really appreciate having natural fibers be in their natural state just in their natural colors. I’m looking at my window here. And where I sit and do my shows in my office at home, I have 17 feet of windows that look out in my garden. And mostly, what’s in my garden is green and brown and just kind of the colors of vegetation.

And then, occasionally—like right now, it’s Spring here in Florida. It’s 70 degrees right now. The azaleas are coming out. So I have these little bits of pink and these colors. It’s not like everything in my garden is constantly color, color, color. That’s not the way nature is. There’s background muted shades, and then there are occasional thing that are color.

So, I think it’s very peaceful to sleep just on a natural color like that, and then be able to use vegetable dyes. I’ve done some vegetable dying. And I used to know a woman who was—I mean, she used to teach plant dyes. That’s how much she knew about them. And there are ways to do it. But a lot of times, when you’re dealing with plant dyes, you have to use things like heavy metals to get them to actually stick to the fabric. And then that’s putting something toxic in it as well.

So, I would just like people to just accept natural things the way they are.

There’s a company in California. I don’t know if you’re familiar with them. I’ve forgotten the name of it off-hand. But they grow cotton in different colors. And there’s just only limited shades, different shades, because it’s only what the plant would produce. But there’s just the natural shade, and then there’s a brown and there’s a green.

And I once had a jacket that was made out of the natural brown cotton. And in the lapels of this jacket, they had woven in little threads of blue that had been dyed with natural dyes. And it was so beautiful, just little threads of that.

We need to take a break. We’ll be right back. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And my guest today is Eva Power from the Ethical Silk Company.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And my guest today is Eva Power from the Ethical Silk Company.

Eva, in addition to the ethical-ness of not killing the silkworms to get the silk, you also have some tailors who are in a fair trade program?

EVA POWER: Yeah, everything is ethically tailored. Again, when I had the idea to begin this company, the initial idea was that I would do the tailoring. I’ve been to India three times, and I heard of a tailoring group in the south of India in a town called [Tahini]. It’s run by the Presentation Sisters which are like an order of nuns. They run a women’s federation. So it teaches women’s empowerment through self-help group.

So, amongst other things, one unit they run is a tailoring unit where they teach the ladies tailoring. So I approached them and said, “Well, will the ladies, once they learned their tailoring, would they be interested in working on my products for me?” The unit is run through the sisters. So again, it’s for my own piece of mind as well. I’ve been out there. I’ve met them all. And I know that the money is getting to them essentially, and they all get well-paid. I know where they work.

And so, it was just another aspect of it. If I’m going to run a company, I want to know exactly who’s doing the work, what they’re getting paid, that everyone is being treated fairly. It should trickle down. You want to know exactly where your products are coming from. I want peace of mind. And then, I can pass that peace of mind onto customers as well, that they know where their products are being made.

So, at the moment, three of the ladies are working on the products. I’m probably going to start working with another fair trade tailoring group in the north of India just as production increases. And again, the tailoring group in the north of India are a fair trade organization. And again, they provide [inaudible 28:15]. And their tailors are very well-paid.

But the standards are very high. At the end of the day, it needs to be a high standard of tailoring.

So, it was really nice. Actually, one lady in particular that has worked on my products from the beginning, she, as a result of I suppose a few years of working on our products has now opened her own tailoring shop in the town.

And she employs three ladies now. She’s actually really busy with that. It’s really nice.

She now has her own business. And she’s created work for more ladies in the town. So that’s essentially [inaudible 28:55]. I’m just so happy for her. She has her own business now. And she’s doing really well. So it was just really gratifying and just really encouraging to hear that […]

DEBRA: I love hearing this because with a product like yours, it’s so simple to just go from the silkworm to the silk to very simple processing of the material to—well, there’s the weaving of the fabric. How does that happen?

EVA POWER: The weaving is done in a certain town in India. It’s special to that town, to that area. There’s a particular weaving process involved in this silk. It’s not a generic one. Because the continuous thread is broken when the silkworm leaves the cocoon, what you have as a result is a lot of smaller, broken threads. So these all needs to get spun together in order to make a thread of silk, and then be woven into the actual fabric. So it is quite specialized.

There is a certain area in India that, apparently, this is their industry. The tailors are all very well-paid. And even according to my manufacturer, the tailors, they’re the ones that call the shot because it’s a specializing manufacturing process.

DEBRA: Well, it’s just so beautiful, to be able to see the line from you know as a manufacturer where the material is coming from and how that material is handled all the way through the line of manufacturing to the women who are sewing the final product—and that you can see that. And it’s a simple thing. It’s not like all these different things are being brought in from all these different places and you can’t even track it. It’s a very transparent thing.

You’ve been there. You’ve seen every step.

I think all manufacturing should be that way. When we have something so close to nature that way, and is such a simple process, then I as a consumer on my end know that that is a good thing.

EVA POWER: And essentially, it was my own peace of mind that I wanted. If I’m going to run a company, it has to be something that I’m 100% proud of. I can hold my head up and say, yeah, this is what we do, and this is how we do it. I just couldn’t bear the thought of thinking that, oh, yeah, I’ll get the tailoring done in this big factory somewhere.

And especially in recent years, you’ve heard terrible stories of different tailoring factories in, let’s say, India and Bangladesh in particular. You’ve heard these awful stories. And you don’t even know. I’d say even half the companies might not even know or haven’t looked into it properly where their items are being tailored. They’re taken at face value.

So, I just think it’s important. It’s just very important for me. And then, I can pass that on to my consumer, my customers. It’s another aspect of it. Essentially, people need to have a good product, top to bottom line [inaudible 32:26]. Here, you do need to obviously be selling a prime product. But what comes of those will have a big impact on people. And it gives them peace of mind, especially, as you’ve said, just the transparency. And that’s what I aim for, just total transparency that I can just sell everything, “Yup, this is everything. There you go!”

DEBRA: And when you go to Eva’s website which is TheEthicalSilkCo.com, she has a picture of the silkworm, she has a picture of the women who are sewing. And so you just get to see the whole thing.

So, basically, you have two products—well, you have three. The three products are pillowcase, baby blanket and a scarf.

EVA POWER: Yeah, the baby blanket started off as a cot sheet, just for the baby to sleep on. And then, I just kept getting more reports back from mums that have gotten them as gifts saying that they’re just really versatile. You can use it as like a breastfeeding throw if you want a bit of discretion in public because it’s breathable and it’s a lightweight fabric.

And also, you can use it as well in the hotter weather as a cover. Let’s say if you have the baby out in the pram, but it’s too hot for a blanket, but you still want something over them, just put this over because it will help cool them down. So, it’s really versatile.

And then, I do a scarf as well which is sort of like a bit of a wrapper, a throw . I’m looking into more, this year, scarves and wraps. And again, I’ll do some tops and some vests, like a [inaudible 34:13] or something like that.

But it’s all very slowly, slowly. It’s my own company. [inaudible 34:20] in recent years with the economy in Ireland. I went into this very carefully sort of testing the waters. So yeah, I’ll just build it up slowly.

But here, it’s getting better and better. And the feedback is great. Hopefully, this year, I could add a few more products; and then, next year, maybe a couple more as well.

DEBRA: And so you have here some benefits for babies and children. Tell us about that.

EVA POWER: Well, again, the benefits. The temperature regulating I think is a huge one. And also, the amino acids are known to evoke a good night’s sleep. So it’s a natural fiber that you have next to the baby for sleeping well. And also, the fact that silk is a hypoallergenic and it doesn’t attract dust mites. And it’s also good for people with sensitive skin. Some babies can be prone to a bit of eczema. So again, it’s just a natural fabric that you can have next to their skin.

And the fact that it’s un-dyed, that it’s a natural color, you don’t have any chemicals or toxins on it, that’s another reason why I’m adamant that the cot sheets are always going to be that natural color.

And then, again, the temperature regulation, I just find it great. Even for my son, I just find it great. Even when we travel with them, I’d always just have one in the bag. If it was too hot if he was in the pram, I’d just have it thrown over. I’d had a couple of moms come back to me saying that their little ones have actually gotten really attached to them and they use them as blankies which is very sweet […]

DEBRA: That’s so sweet, yeah. I can just imagine babies wanting to be next to things that are natural, that it would just seem very natural to them and very comfortable to them to have something like this. Good job! Good job. I really like these products.

EVA POWER: Thank you.

DEBRA: Well, we’re just about to the end of the show. Thank you so much for being with me today. This is really interesting.

EVA POWER: Oh, my pleasure! Thanks for having me. It’s lovely speaking to you.

DEBRA: You’re welcome. Again, the website is TheEthicalSilkCo.com. This is The Ethical Silk Company. My guest is Eva Power. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And you can go to find out more about this show at ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. I post all the guests there. You can listen to all the back shows.

There’s more than 200 of them on the website. So take a look. I’ll be back tomorrow.

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