Banana Fiber, Aloe and Hemp Lead Weavers To Create New Fabrics

The Telegraph By G.C. SHEKHAR

Weaver Sekhar and wife Padma with banana fibre Chennai, Nov. 2: A weaver in Tamil Nadu has come up with saris made from the fibre of banana stems, and a host of other natural products, apparently taking the cue from his counterparts in Bengal. Today, thanks to C. Sekhar’s inventive mind, women willing to try out something new can also wear a sari made of the succulent plant Aloe vela, jute, hemp and a dozen other natural fibres. Sekhar, 45, from Anakaputhur, a town about 45km from the Tamil Nadu capital, had read about jute being used to make saris in Bengal and began using the plant as a substitute for cotton to create linen material for a French exporter. That was about 10 years back. “I then read about weavers in the Philippines using cloth out of fibre made from the stem of banana plants. I started experimenting and soon mastered the technique of extracting fibre after drying the pulp into thin strands. Initially I could weave only small segments and hence used the banana segment as the pallu. But now I have almost a dozen looms weaving full-length saris made of banana fibre,” he says. The saris, which have a light lustre, are lighter and also breathe well, were an instant hit ever since Sekhar launched them two years back. The price varies from Rs 700 to Rs 4,000 as some customrs also want silk strands woven into them for visual appeal. Asked if banana saris last, his wife Padma pointed to one that has been part of her wardrobe for more than a year. She had also washed it many times, the 36-year-old added. A few months ago, Sekhar started experimenting with Aloe vera, a thick-leaved plant whose extracts are used in beauty products and herbal medicine, and managed to weave a sari out of its fibre. “It is even cooler and a customer who tried it out said “it is like wearing nature’,” Sekhar recalls. So what led him to alternative natural fibres? The answer lies in the old saying: Necessity is the mother of invention. Cotton yarn had become expensive and the arrival of powerlooms had virtually robbed handloom weavers of their livelihood. Anakaputhur, once home to over 10,000 looms in the ’60s, has fewer than 400 now. Moreover, the staple product of the area, Real Madras Handkerchief — a six-yard-long, three-foot-wide brightly coloured cloth used as the national dress in Nigeria — went out of production after the African nation banned imports in the ’60s. So Sekhar’s search for an alternative made him use fibres of virtually anything he could source from nature — jute, bamboo, pineapple, flax and reed grass. He is now weaving a single sari made of 25 natural fibres. Sekhar sells his products through the local jute weavers’ association so that everyone profits from the venture and is also reassured that there’s money to be made from natural fibre. “Unless the entire community gets involved, it would be difficult to revive the handloom industry to its glory days,” Sekhar says and swears that his two sons will be weavers like him. Asked if he expected anything from the government, Sekhar said, almost reluctantly, money for research and decent housing for the weaving community. “We can take care of the rest.”