Palmyrah Weaving

  

Leaf lamina

Leaves of all ages from the ivory coloured young leaves to the brown coloured dead leaves of palmyrah are used. In the past the thin whitish young leaves were used as paper for writing notes, memoirs, letters etc. The dead leaves with the lamina, petiole and the basal sheath are always used as domestic fuel in the villages. The lamina region is used to manure paddy fields in some regions.

The mature green leaves, cut down from the palm are used for thatching and for fencing. The leaves have to be dried and the lamina stretched and flattened out before they could be used for the above purposes.

Usually the cut leaves were allowed to air dry for a day or two. Then the leaves are trampled with the feet to stretch the frond and arranged in a line on the ground in two close rows, putting one over the other (partly overlapping). After about 2 days, the Fence constructed from palmyrah leaf leaves with the petiole can be used for fencing. If it is for thatching, then they are usually arranged in a circle in several layers and finally heavy weights are kept over the heap of leaves to flatten the frond. It is usually kept in this position for about 2 weeks. Some cut the petioles when thatching and others thatching with the stalks. A more compact fence is made by closely arranging the leaf petioles vertically. ln the Island of Timor (Indonesia), the petioles are arranged horizontally fitting one into the other in the form of a woven fence. In Jaffna, the partly stretched leaves (after remaining on the ground for 2 days) are used straight away for fencing. During fencing one leaf is placed at an angle, the next one at spacing of 30 cm is placed vertically over it. This is repeated and the leaves are held in position by binding using petioles and tying with the ‘naar’ strips.

The first two tender unexpanded whitish leaves and the next 12 young green leaves are used for making various handicrafts. The whitish tender leaves are used for making soft fine handicrafts while the young green leaves are used for making stronger, but coarse textured utility items like mats, baskets, packaging material, inner lining of heavy duty fibre baskets etc. In India, the mature leaf strips are woven into packaging materials to store and transport, dried fish, fresh fish, fruits, processed tamarind, yams and even ice. Experiments conducted at the department of Botany University of jaffna have indicated that, more whitish leaves can be produced by covering some of the young leaves with a bag or cardboard material preventing light entering the leaves. Growing leaves covered in this manner for two or more months produced light coloured almost whitish (etiolated) leaves.

The usual practice is to remove only2 tender leaves per year, but it this method is applied, it will be possible to obtain more such leaves. The tender leaves after sun drying are wrapped in gunny bags and store in a warm room to prevent discolouration and development of moulds. In India, the leaf products are fumigated over night by burning turmeric powder to retain the natural white colour. One of the problems with the leaf products is that, they discolour with time and become more brittle. Brittleness s