The palm leaves are utilized in making variety of products such as presentation boxes, plain boxes, hats, trays, baskets and more. The weaving of these products is simple, and the twists and turns of the palm leaves strip to build each product changes slightly.
Proposed products:
Round Box with Cover
Fruit Basket
Thamboola Basket
Pen Stand
Square Box - Color
Training shall be provided for other products and models also
The making process of palm leaf basket:
Preparation of Palm leaves
Dyeing of Palm leaves
Weaving of Palm leaves to baskets.
The Preparation of Palm Leaves
The palm leaves are collected from the palm trees. The semi dry palm leaves are completely dried. The midrib of the dried leaves is removed splitting the palm leaves into two halves separating the stick. Later the palm leaves are either cut to more thin strips or kept to carry on with the further dyeing process.
Dyeing of Palm Leaves
The dried palm leaves are cut to more thin strips and dyed to give respective color. A vat half filled with water is kept for boiling. With slight start of boiling the dye is added once the color of the water turns to respective color the palm strips are added to the vat and left for the dye to settle on the strips. After few minutes the strips are removed and kept for cooling. The dyed strips are taken and further weaving process is begun.
Weaving of Palm Leaves to Baskets.The palm leaves are weaved to variety of things- boxes, presentation boxes, simple square boxes, baskets, hats and many more. The making process of palm leaf basket follows by firstly picking up a pair of palm leaves of length 12inches. The palm leaves is weaved to create a tray like shape for the base of the basket. To start with the weaving two pairs of palm leaves of an inch’s width is taken and placed adjacent to each other with half-centimeter’s gap. A thin cut strip is taken and placed behind. Keeping the two pair of adjacent palm leaves in the same position the thin strip is brought over front till the half-centimeter’s gap and inserted, it is run across horizontally and brought front, kind of knotting the strip. The step follows to finish with the base for the basket maintaining the distance of strips equally repeating the steps while adding pair of palm leaves adjacent to one another. The edges are locked following the same weaving steps but with the thin strips of half centimeters width. Then the sides are worked by continuing the weaving in the same way. The handles for the basket are attached by measuring from the sides, marking equal spots from both sides. The extra palm leaves are cut with the help of small handy knife and the basket is completed.
Note: First two process can be same for all products. And third step will vary from product to product.
Methods to improve:
Efficiency of Production
Machine process can be introduced to remove stick from the palm leaf.
Leaf cutting machine can also introduced for reduce the time of process.
Water and some organic solvents can be used in conservation treatment to remove unwanted stains, dust and dirt in palm leaf objects.
To keep the leaves soft and flexible, clove, camphor and eucalyptus oils can be used
Quality of Products
Uniformity in the products
Good finishing
Attractive colors and long usages
Neem, citronella and lemon grass can also be used to preserve palm leaf objects.