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sisal

Basketry
raffia

Basketry
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Sisal crochet or tied to hats and bags

Step 4) Eva twines manually the sisal fibres so that they become thread. If dying, this is done with ÖKO-Tex certified  dyes.

Step 2) With hand craft, Eva separates the fibres from the rest of the fleshy sisal leaves.

Step 3) The sisal fibres are rinsed in pure water.

Mme Eva is living with her husband and children in a village on the central highlands of Madagascar. Eva is an artisan--but as the majority of the Malagasy people, she

Step 1) There sisal leaves are picked. There are many wild growing types of sisal in the neighbourhood. The picture above shows the type Eva prefers for making crafts. This as its fibres are long, even and strong.

Step 5) The thread is crochet to make a hat 

… or it is tied to a shoulderbag.

Result!

Art nr 2417 Bamboo-spidernet bag 30cm x 34cm

Art nr 2452 Shoulder bag "Spider net" 31cm x 28cm

Art nr 229 Spa-bag 26cm x 22cm

Art nr 256 Chapeau Sisal

Sisal fibres woven and combined with reeds and ecological leather to become baskets

Mme Lanto and M Solo, together with their two children and grandma, live on the Malagasy highlands, in Antapiabe. They, like most of the people in the village, are self-sufficiency farmers. There are a lot of wild-growing sisal in Antapiabe, The craft making using sisal adds cash income.

Step 1) The process starts with picking, then manually extracting sisal fibres from the leaves.   

Step 2) The thread is twined by hand to treads à 50 m or 100 m.

Step 3) Readymade sisal thread

Step 4) Dying: Only Öko-Tex certified dyes are used for La Maison Afrique FAIR TRADE assortment. If the water is hot enough, a few minutes are enough for the sisal fibres to absorb the colour.

Step 5) Dyed sisal is hung up to dry.

Step 6) Mme Lanto sets up the piece in the handloom. The work is swift

Step 8) There are two homemade  handlooms in the house. When they don't use the handlooms, they disassemble and put the pieces by the wall.

Step 7)  M Solo is weaving beside. After some 20 minutes the woven fabric is ready.

Step 9) Woven sisal, ready for delivery. There is no road to Antapiabe for motor driven vehicles. M Solo loads the woven sisal on his bicycle some 4km, where a tarmac road

Step 10) Mme Hanta and M Mamtiana receive the woven sisal they have ordered.

Making baskets, they use woven sisal and:
Plaited reeds (the baskets is made in two layers, the lining is made of reeds)
Sundried, woven raffia palmleaves (to the bottom of the basket)
Ecological leather (tanned with lime and mimosa leaves)

See Fair Trade assortment for more pictures of sisal products, information material (in pdf and pps-format) and order forms. 

Step 11) The materials are cut, combined and the basket is sewn. Also the leather handles are sewn on this "universal tool". (In order to make the basket strong enough for heavy loads as well as comfortable to carry,  the handles are sewn double and have extra length.)

Art nr 217 Basket woven sisal, leather handle  Plain colour or with stripes  H=35cm
Art nr 2171 Basket woven sisal, leather handle  Plain colour H=30cm
Art nr 2172 Basket woven sisal, leather handle  Plain colour  H=25cm

Step 12) After sewing the basket and the handles, Mme Hanta's husband fixes each handle with four rivets onto the basket.