OUR STORY

KALMA is a death positive brand for the living.

After chronic illness and newfound disability took her career in custom fabrication, artist AJ Hawkins took the ashes of one dream and brought forth another - to create a conscious dark lifestyle brand. In 2018, she launched KALMA - a place to find thoughtfully sourced, handmade and vintage goods that honor mortality, celebrate beauty and cultivate curiosity.  

Named for the Finnish folk character who represents death and decomposition, KALMA honors that decay is not an end but a transmutation - a vital process that makes loss into life, ends into beginnings, old into new.

KALMA is owned and operated by AJ from the cozy forest home in Washington State that she shares with her husband Daniel and their cat, Sirius. 

OUR TEAM

  • AJ Hawkins (she/they)

    FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR

    AJ Hawkins is a death positive artist, advocate and business owner. Her work is inspired by the relationship between ourselves, our bodies, and the natural world. Whether representing the necrobiome, illness, disability or grief, their work often centers themes of decay.

    In 2019, AJ launched KALMA—a place for the death positive and darkly-inclined. AJ’s creative direction of KALMA is an exploration of how we can all live more authentic lives and more empowered deaths.

    AJ uses their online platform for advocacy work, creating content about death positive topics like green burial, death planning, and the bone trade. This work now extends more deeply into their local community through KALMA’s storefront and The Parlor.

  • Jen Hauser (they/them)

    COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR

    Jen is a threshold tender and mortality awareness advocate. Whether in willow patches alongside Woven Thresholds, or the wider community, jen is a weaver—creating connections and building structures that draw previously distant parts together.

    They care deeply about normalizing community-centered deathcare & making it more accessible by supporting an individual’s autonomy through education as well as resource building and sharing. Jen is a volunteer with Jefferson County Hospice, and End of Life Washington, and has past experience in crisis intervention & suicide awareness advocacy.

    They support others in their relationship to death through companionship + ritual, including end-of-life and funeral planning, death talks and Living Funeral Ceremonies. They intend to offer death doula and bereavement services in the future.

  • Casey Mclain (she/her)

    SHOP FAE

    Casey is a tender creative and aspiring filmmaker. While at KALMA, she’s the nimble fingers that help keep the retail operation running smoothly. Whether it’s fabricating our houseline products, packing orders, or making the shop look beautiful and tidy, her thoughtful spirit and attention to detail ensure the KALMA experience is special for all of our guests and customers.

OUR ETHOS

We believe it’s good business to be good humans.

THOUGHTFULLY SOURCED

Our products are thoughtfully sourced, with an emphasis on featuring small-batch and handmade items from a variety of woman-, enby- and minority-owned businesses. We strive to honor diversity and intersectionality in all that we do.

ECO- FRIENDLY

We take care of our earth home by operating with as little plastic as possible, using recycled and recyclable packaging, and by stocking new and vintage products made of durable and natural materials.

DEATH POSITIVE

We believe that de-stigmatizing death helps people live better lives. We stock new products that respectfully engage with mortality and grief, and source vintage products from estate sales to help families offset the cost of elder and death care.