Indus Tree Crafts Foundation
Palm leaf
|
Common name |
Local names |
Botanical name |
Available region in India |
|
Palm leaf |
Thaale ele (Kannada) Thati aaku (Telugu) Panai olai (Tamil) Pana ola (Malayalam) |
Borassus flabellifer |
Coastal parts of India |
Palm trees belong to Arecaceae family. Palm trees mostly grown in coastal areas, these trees grows on its own. Palm used in the craft in this area is Indian fan palm or Palmyra palm. A tall columnar dioecious palm up to 30 - 60 cm in diameter with a very dark gray almost black trunk. Fan shaped leaves 90 - 140 cm in diameter, shining dark green, divided into 60-80 linear lance-shaped segments, folded along the midrib. It has a terminal crown of 30-40 leaves.
The fruit is orange in colour and reddish black when ripe. It prevents soil erosion and protects natural wealth. Palm products are free from environment pollution. Apart from these, this palm provides employment to palm leaf craft artisans. Hence, programmes have been formulated with a long term view to grow and protect Palmyra trees, to create awareness among the public, to develop and completely utilize palm products industry, for improving the standard of living of the rural artisans.
Palm leaf craft
After procuring the leaves, the hands are separated and the leaves are washed and sun
dried.
Tools: An iron knife, earlier used for splicing palm leaves but now used as a needle..
Palm leaf basket – Needle work/Pitti weaving
• The tender leaves are split into the pieces of 0.5 cm. width with the help of the splicing
tool.• The basket structure has two components, the core and the cover of the core.
• First the base is prepared. In this the inner core is made of a bunch of old palm leaves,
spliced to the width of .5 cm and the spliced tender leaf is wrapped around it.
• Once the base is made, the basket is given its height with the inner core being the palm
rib.• The tapered part of the knife is used for inserting the tender leaf in between the
consecutive cores, for this the tip of the split leaves is also kept pointed.
• Once the basket is complete, it is finished by trimming the extra lengths of the palm
leaves.
• Sometimes colourful baskets are also made, for which the tender leaf is dyed after
splicing.
• While making the baskets the artisans keep wetting the leaves to maintain its flexibility.
• Palm leaf basket - Kaiyal weaving - This is a flat cross or straight weave.
Some of the palm leaf product pictures:
for trade enquiries please visit Indus Tree Crafts Pvt. Ltd.
Different plant pictures and click on the picture to see detailed information on that fibre
Banana
------------------------------
Palm
------------------------------
Sisal
------------------------------
Bamboo
------------------------------
Korai grass
------------------------------
Screw pine
------------------------------
Water hyacinth