Project Banana

Poludas Nagendra Satish

Design and Technical development- field implementation

Traditional Fiber extraction Process
The traditional process of fibre extraction from the off shoots of Banana plant is laborious and time consuming. The layers separated from the banana stems are processed through various retting techniques generally in the water tanks, local canals for a period of 10 to 15 days. The retted layers of the plant beaten manually to loosen the fibers, washed and cleaned further leaving the waste. Traditional practice of this kind, yield the highest quality of this fiber. The fibers have good luster and are very affordable for the process of spinning and weaving.

Mechanized White Fiber extraction Process

Alternatively, mechanical process using either defibering or decorticating equipment process the separated layers of the stems can be separated directly into fibers. The beater in the machine helps to open the fibers. By using revolving drums the course long fibers are separated from the short fleshy parts and the pith. The stronger fibers are washed, cleaned and dried.

Technical Modification in the Machine

blades being parallel to the ground close-up of blades edges of the blades are round finished and are fixed parallel to the ground.

The rotating blades available in the machine are sharp and are good to extract coir fiber as the fiber is rough. Banana being a smooth, soft fiber, the sharp blades while extracting the fibers may cause harm to the strength of fibers by beating and cutting them into short lengths.

Nails Bolt Bolt

Table Woodn plank

Nails

Brushes used clean extracted fiber to more refined ones which can be directly used for spinning and weaving.

Few varieties of Brown Fiber extraction Process

The outer bark which is brown green colour is peeled off and the fiber strips are cut through hand extraction machine composed of either serrated or non serrated knives. The peel is clamped between the wood plank and knife and hand-pulled through, removing the resinous material. The extracted fibers are sun-dried which whitens the fiber. To get a dark brown shade to the fibers we have to keep the bark strips for much longer time. The sponge like structure behind the strips are to be completely scraped to avoid fungus problems in humid conditions. There will be a fine fiber strip at the both ends of the bark layers is a very good fiber to explore. It is a smooth, light brown and pure fiber which we use it to make screens.

varieties of Fibers extracted from the Banana bark and leaf. Images of fibers after extraction.

We dry the processed fibers naturally. Initially we used to extract fiber in our own unit. Now a days Kora support people who want to start a unit, train the techniques of extracting fiber and buy it from them.

Process of hand Spinning

The usual practice through ages is the hand spinning where the fibre is rolled into short length of 6 to 9 inches, giving a clock-wise twist by hands. When the sufficient quantity of the yarn is made, two of these short lengths are taken in hand together and made into yarn of two plies by giving counter twist, using both hands. When the counter twist reaches near the end of the striking, further pieces of short lengths kept ready are added one after the other. The counter twist using both hands is continued till it reaches the required length of being a knot, reeled in the form of hank for further usage. Though this process is very labourious and time consuming, it always have a soft twist and better feel.

Traditional Spinning Ratt (manual & motarised)

To prepare two-ply coir yarn on the spinning wheel, one set of two wheels, one stationary and one movable is required. The stationary wheel usually contains two spindles set in motion through the center of the wheel manually by hand. The movable wheel contains one spindle only. Two persons take the slivers of the coir prepared and kept ready after willowing. Usually two women keeps the sliver in the arm pits, make a loop with small quantity of fibre which is put into the notch of each spindle set into motion on stationary wheel. Further fibre in the armpits is added to the loop while walking backward forming single stand yarn. The operation is continued till the required length is reached and are passed through the grooved rod. The two strands of yarn spinned are tied together into the notch of the spindle on movable wheel which is at the other end. The grooved rod is allowed to move farward and the movable wheel is turned in the opposite direction.

The object of the grooved rod is to regulate the twist of the yarn and to prevent entanglement of the strands at the time of doubling. When the grooved rod reaches the stationary wheel, the turning of the spindles of the spinning wheel is stopped and all the ends from that of stationary wheel are cut off and made into hanks.

Depending on the usage the yarn is tested if there is sufficient twist. If ore twist is required, the movable wheel is turned towards its original direction till the required twist is obtained. If the yarn has more twist than required, the movable wheel is turned in the direction contrary to the original twist.
yarn spun by hand
Protruding fibers

yarn spun by by Ratt

The women of East and West Godavari districts have been practicing the skill of spinning coir ropes for the local vendors since the last 7 decades. We tried to replace the coir fiber with banana that has better commercial value and asked them to make it finer. In few areas where the women are not so skilled we trained them to spin single strand yarn on a ratt. It took almost two years for the artisans to get comfortable with the new material and spin a good quality of yarn. Slowly standardised three different counts of yarns using two kinds of fine fibers with colour variations of natural white and brown. We are working with nearly 120 women living in

Mallikapuram, Chintalamoru, Gudapalli, Veguvaripalem, Rajole, Mogilipalli, Pasarlapudi, Nagaram, Appannapalli, Podalada, Chakalipalem, Doddavaram, Kadali, Thotlapalem, Peruru, Panasala, Doddi, Ambajipeta, Gannavaram,
A hank of any yarn consists of Hundred Meters. Hanks are collected and tagged with the artisan names who spun the yarn.

Bodapativaripalem etc. of East and west Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh working in small clusters. They spin two ply banana yarn of two varieties and single strand banana yarn of four varieties for us.

A tool to measure yarn.

0.5 meter 1 revolution= 1 meter

Introduction to Natural Dyeing process

Interlacement of warp and weft; Warp- cotton, Weft- Banana

Hand weaving technique

warp
Cross-section of the weft yarns interlacing with the warp

Oggu

For every pick before beating, the weaver keep the oggu for extra length which results in the weft dominating weave.

Weft
Detail: interlocking technique of two colour yarns that for patterns.

selvedge

Finished loom mat

15% cotton 85% Banana

100 % Banana

90 ends warp of 15 inches width

60 ends warp of 20 inches width

Introduction to Unit of Measurement

1Hath = 18 centimeters
As some of the artisans are illiterates they were
asked to learn up to ten to twenty numbers that will

inches The artisans use naive methods to measure the mat or length of mat. Generally they use a cotton thread or measure it by hand in a very casual way. They never felt it serious to follow any fixed unit of measurement. Weaving with reference to Specification
Format 1

the work easy. The specifications for the designs

were thought in inches and feet and were asked to practice it.

They were introduced to centimeters, meters, inches and feet in relation. Weaving to perfection

3
It is very important for any artisans to follow specifications and weave according to a particular pattern. To meet any particular order requirement it is important to work in a group and meet up the specification and quality aspects. So we explored so many possibilities and ways to develop a common language between the artisans o understand and implement.

Initially when the weavers started duplicating the sample duplicating the sample got confused with the count of No. of inches. or less. At times there was problem of design getting distorted.

Format 2

Format 3

There were few young weavers who were able to read in Telugu. The specification format was given in this format to understand and weave it according to the pattern.

A format with drawings of bunch of fibers that need to be resist dyed in a particular pattern and use it in format to get the desired a pattern.

Grid Patterns and Weaving

Circle

Triangle

Four square

Geometrical pattern 1

Geometrical pattern 2

Pattern made on graph paper

Graph pattern converted into an artifact

Geometrical pattern 3

Any pattern or drawing can be represented using a graph.

Conversion of graph into weave pattern

Visualized drawing

Graph of the drawing

Interlocking of two colour weft yarns in reference to graph

Exploring different Techniques of weaving

20

12

14

Design patterns demonstrated mat

14

Drafts

We tried to explore simple patterns and resist dyeing techniques that are easy to implement as the craftsmen were new to the technique and need good skill to practice it. The grass is dyed following the above patterns and try to explore them in different permutations and combinations that resulted in huge variety of value added design patterns.

Sample Design woven using dent variation technique Sample Design 3 which allows thick structure variation. It has cushioning feel and reasonable weight to be woven as portable mat.

Final products

The final look of the products using different Banana fibers. These products are avalable in Few stores in Hyderabad and Visakapatman

Making Banana Fabric

Soaps out of Bana Bark extract

Banana Paper Exploration

Banana paper Bags

Introduction to few Hand skill techniques- Training

Macrame Technique
left: Macrame knot detail
Series of hand braided jadas stitched together to form a surface. Jada

Hand craft techniques

Jada Technique

Artisans making Ooyala using the technique

Replication of a product in reference to drawing

Step 1 Free hand drawing.

Step 2 Simplifying over all form into sections.

Step 3 Planning the look of the product, ornamentation.

Step 4 Final product

Skill Improved by the Artisan- Analysis

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Explorations

Form Exploration- Product conversion

Basic Geometrical Forms

Basic Geometrical Forms

Sharp corners for any form was difficult to achieve. Artisans were trained in stitching techniques to replicate any desired form.

Circle

Square

Triangle

Artisans skill improved, Analysis

Detail drawing of the stitches of any form to attain sharp edges.

End Product

End Product

Circle exploration

Square exploration

Triangle exploration

Building basic geometrical forms into three dimensional products

Explorations

Natural dyed, hand stitched boxes supplied to few jewelers shops in Visakhapatnam

Natural dyed, hand stitched bags and purses that are sold in domestic market

Exploring Crochet lace Technique

There are thousands of women, who are very skilled in knitting the lace products. On an average they earn less than 15 rupees a day working 6 to 8 hours. Products were explored using varieties of banana yarn and yarn was modified to suit the technique.