Artisan Heritage

The Maison

Hand-dyed in Vietnam — the artisans behind every scarf

Every Silk & Bears piece is made by hand, in Vietnam, by silk artisans whose families have worked with mulberry silk for generations. No machines. No fast fashion. Just slow, deliberate craft, passed from mother to daughter.

Hand-dyed gold mulberry silk scarf, draped, photographed in soft natural light — Silk and Bears
Gold Mulberry Silk — hand-dyed in small batches, no two pieces identical.

Two thousand years of mulberry silk

Vietnam has produced silk for over two thousand years. Our artisans live and work in the same Red River Delta and central highland villages their grandmothers did — using techniques their mothers taught them. The patience is the same. The pride is the same.

Six steps, every piece, by hand

  1. Preparation. 100% mulberry silk, inspected length by length.
  2. Dye mixing. Small batches, mixed by eye — no two batches identical.
  3. Hand-dyeing. Dipped, folded, tied, or brush-painted, depending on the design.
  4. Setting & washing. The colour is heat-set, the silk softened in cold river water.
  5. Air-drying. Outdoors. Never tumble dried.
  6. Hand-finishing. Rolled hems, hand-tied tags, gift-boxed by hand.

Total time per piece: three to seven days, depending on the design.

Pink to purple to blue ombre hand-dyed mulberry silk scarf, draped — Silk and Bears
Pink-to-Purple Ombré — three dye stages over four days.

Three techniques you'll see in our collection

Emerald green hand-dyed mulberry silk scarf — Silk and Bears artisan technique

Hand-dye & Ombré

Single-tone and gradient pieces dipped in small-batch dye, often over several days for depth.

 Turquoise blue shibori hand-dyed mulberry silk scarf with resist pattern — Silk and Bears

Shibori

A resist-dye tradition. The silk is folded and tied before dyeing — the pattern emerges where the dye couldn't reach.

 Turquoise and emerald brushstroke hand-dyed silk scarf — Silk and Bears

Brushstroke

Painted by hand with a horsehair brush, one piece at a time. Gestural, loose, impossible to replicate identically.

 Grey to white ombre hand-dyed mulberry silk scarf — Silk and Bears

Ombré

The gradient pieces — colour graduating so softly it only fully reveals itself in the light.

Why every order ships in a gift box

Silk & Bears began quietly, in 2020 — a small act of preservation by a founder who couldn't bear the thought of these techniques being lost to fast fashion. Every single order — even the smallest scrunchie — leaves in a signature gift box, tissue, and ribbon. It's how silk this carefully made deserves to arrive.

Explore the Hand-Dyed Collection