Challenge of making banana-fibre cloth

In the past (between 2006 and 2008), I have woven banana fibre I extracted from fibre banana plants I cultivated myself. At that time, however, I used banana fibre only in the weft. One of those weaves was a belt of 'Shuri hanaori' (weft float) patterns with a warp of ramie yarn, another one was a series of coasters also with 'Shuri hanaori' patterns but using a warp of cotton yarn, and the third one was a long weave with warp ikat and 'Roton ori' (warp float) patterns also with a warp of cotton yarn.

Next time, I want to weave a banana-fibre cloth using selfmade banana-fibre yarn for both warp and weft. A short one will be fine! When making banana-fibre cloth, the preparation of the banana-fibre yarn is the most time-consuming part of the job. Since I am a beginner and it is not my daily work, it will definitely take several years.

There are an increasing number of workshops allowing to experience the process of banana-fibre yarn making. In that case, the instructor prepares everything, so that anybody who participates can do it easily. However, when you try to do it by yourself, it is not so easy. There are preparations such as making a lye of wood ash and making tools such as bamboo scissors you need to do on your own.

The purpose of this page is to document the whole production process of banana-fibre cloth and all the problems that might arise during this process.