Esparto, halfah grass, or esparto grass is a fiber produced from two species of perennial grasses of north Africa, Spain and Portugal. It is used for crafts, such as cords, basketry, and espadrilles. Stipa tenacissima and Lygeum spartum are the species used to produce esparto.
Stipa tenacissima (Macrochloa tenacissima) produces the better and stronger esparto. It is endemic to the Mediterranean region (growing in Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt). Another name in Spanish for the plant is "atocha", a pre-Roman word. "Esparto" or σπάρτο in Greek may refer to any woven products of sedge or broom, including cords and ropes. [1] This species grows forming a steppic landscape – esparto grasslands – which covers large parts of Spain and Algeria.
Esparto leaves have been used for millennia. The oldest baskets of esparto, dating back 7,000 years, were found in a cave in southern Spain (Cueva de los Murciélagos, Albuñol, Granada). This collection is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain. There are many esparto remains in archaeological settlements from as long ago as the Neolithic period, including rugs, ropes, clothes, etc. Iberians used esparto rugs as floor coverings. For Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans, esparto was the best raw material for boat ropes. For centuries, esparto grasslands have been managed by local populations in order to boost the harvest, due to its economic value. In southern Spain there is an "Esparto culture": a deep knowledge about the many uses of this fiber forms part of the traditions of these communities. After the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), esparto was declared a "national fiber"; there was even a National Esparto Service. The opening of markets to other fibers and plastics eventually led to the decline of the esparto industry.
Esparto leaves are traditionally harvested with a stick; usually of wood or iron, but in ancient times, of bone. The stick is used to pull up a handful of leaves at a time. The esparto is not normally used immediately after harvesting. Instead, the leaves are left to dry in the sun until they turn yellowish. This is the raw esparto, which is used for different basketry techniques. An alternative is to soak the leaves in water for about a month, before drying and then crushing them. This material is known as "crushed esparto", which is stronger and easier to weave. The main techniques are:
All techniques involve working with an odd number of strands, from 5 to 31 or more.
There are many complementary techniques to end the baskets, square braids, cord edging, crown sinnet, points, etc. In the finest pieces, all leaves used must be the same size and diameter, and must always be joined in parallel.
Traditionally, esparto basketry has not been a professional product. Shepherds, farmers and other people of the countryside used to plait esparto on rainy days or in times not suitable for working.
Most craft tools and artifacts in the southern Spanish countryside for farming and livestock were made with esparto, such as harvesting baskets, items for the home, and containers/sacks for carts, horses, and donkeys. There is a huge variety of items, many of which are well known and have a specific use, but others are the product of a special personal need or a free creation, such as toys for children or animals. Every kind of basket has a special name that describes its use. For example, a "cesto rosero" is a basket used traditionally to gather saffron flowers.
A special esparto basketry piece is the esparto canteen. Made with crushed esparto and waterproofed with pine pitch, they were used by the shepherds of southeastern Spain to carry water in the mountains. The Archaeological Museum of Cartagena has an example of a Roman esparto canteen two thousand years old. Esparto was also used for making slingshots. In ancient times these were used as weapons of war, but could also be used for hunting or by shepherds to protect their livestock.
A wide strip of plaited raw esparto, named "pleita" in Spanish, is the traditional mold for Manchego cheese.
Another important use of esparto is in rope-making. Ropes could be made with raw esparto, crushed esparto or raked esparto (after crushed). A special rope was used to tie cereal bunches in harvest time. Other were used in vernacular architecture to tie reeds to the timber in roof building. [3]
Esparto grass is known for its use in papermaking. The fiber makes a high quality paper often used in book manufacturing. First used in Great Britain in 1850 by Thomas Routledge [4] who imported it from southern Spain, and it was greatly exploited by Edward Lloyd at his paper mills at Bow-Bridge [5] and Sittingbourne from the 1860s. Lloyd imported his raw materials from Oran and Arzew in Algeria. It has been extensively used in the UK and Europe, but due to transportation costs, it is rarely found in the United States. Most paper made from esparto is usually combined with 5% to 10% wood pulp.
The fibers are fairly short in relation to their width, yet do not create any significant amount of dust. Because of the short fiber length, the tensile strength of the paper is less than that of many other papers, but its resistance to shrinkage and stretching is superior, and the paper is a well-filled, dense paper with excellent inking qualities. It also has very good folding properties.
Some manufacturers of rolling paper may use esparto, which might lead to a slightly higher carcinogen level when burned. [6]
The old leaves, which are under the plant, were used to make the traditional torches of southern Spain, named "hachos". They are also used by beekeepers to produce smoke while taking honey from the hives. Shepherds would sometimes weave a makeshift spoon from esparto leaves to eat curdle.
Abacá (Spanish), Musa textilis, is a species of banana endemic to the Philippines. The plant grows to 13–22 feet (4.0–6.7 m), and averages about 12 feet (3.7 m). The plant, also known as Manila hemp, has great economic importance, being harvested for its fiber, also called Manila hemp, extracted from the leaf-stems.
Esparto is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yolo County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,108 at the 2010 census.
A braid is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing three or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-stranded structure. More complex patterns can be constructed from an arbitrary number of strands to create a wider range of structures. The structure is usually long and narrow with each component strand functionally equivalent in zigzagging forward through the overlapping mass of the others. It can be compared with the process of weaving, which usually involves two separate perpendicular groups of strands.
A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers, and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are generally woven by hand. Some baskets are fitted with a lid, while others are left open on top.
Stipa is a genus of around 300 large perennial hermaphroditic grasses collectively known as feather grass, needle grass, and spear grass. They are placed in the subfamily Pooideae and the tribe Stipeae, which also contains many species formerly assigned to Stipa, which have since been reclassified into new genera.
Fiber crops are field crops grown for their fibers, which are traditionally used to make paper, cloth, or rope.
Espadrilles are casual, rope-soled, flat but sometimes high-heeled shoes. They usually have a canvas or cotton fabric upper and a flexible sole made of esparto rope. The esparto rope sole is the defining characteristic of an espadrille; the uppers vary widely in style.
Stipa tenacissima is a perennial grass of northwestern Africa and the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula.
The material culture of the Manasir is very basic and primarily relies on the by-products of palm tree cultivation. Date trees not only constitute the main source of income and an important supply of nutrition in Dar al-Manasir, but the Manasir also make intelligent use of all different parts of the palm tree. From it they produce diverse household items, garden tools and building material for their traditional mud houses..
Basket weaving is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets may be known as basket makers and basket weavers. Basket weaving is also a rural craft.
Lygeum is a genus of Mediterranean plants in the grass family. It is placed in its own tribe Lygeeae, which is sister to Nardeae.
A tick mattress, bed tick or tick is a large bag made of strong, stiff, tightly-woven material (ticking). This is then filled to make a mattress, with material such as straw, chaff, horsehair, coarse wool or down feathers, and less commonly, leaves, grass, reeds, bracken, or seaweed. The whole stuffed mattress may also, more loosely, be called a tick. The tick mattress may then be sewn through to hold the filling in place, or the unsecured filling could be shaken and smoothed as the beds were aired each morning. A straw-filled bed tick is called a paillasse, palliasse, or pallet, and these terms may also be used for bed ticks with other fillings. A tick filled with flock is called a flockbed. A feather-filled tick is called a featherbed, and a down-filled one is a downbed; these can also be used above the sleeper as a duvet.
Basketry of Mexico has its origins far into the pre Hispanic period, pre-dating ceramics and the domestication of crops. By the time the Spanish arrived, there were a number of indigenous forms, a number of which are still made today. These and products that the Spanish introduced form the combined tradition that remains today. Like other Mexican handcrafts, sales to tourists and collectors is important, but basketry is not as popular as other handcrafts. Basketry techniques and materials vary from region to region depending on the vegetation available, with important traditions in Sonora, State of Mexico, Michoacán, Veracruz, Oaxaca and the Yucatán Peninsula.
Hidalgo (state) handcrafts and folk art are mostly made for local consumption rather than for collectors, although there have been efforts to promote this work to a wider market. Most are utilitarian and generally simply decorated, if decorated at all. The most important handcraft traditions are pottery, especially in the municipality of Huejutla and textiles, which can be found in diverse parts of the state. Most artisans are indigenous, with the Otomi populations of the Mezquital Valley being the most dominant. Other important handcrafts include basketry, metal and wood working.
Bambooworking is the activity or skill of making items from bamboo, and includes architecture, carpentry, furniture and cabinetry, carving, joinery, and weaving. Its historical roots in Asia span cultures, civilizations, and millennia, and is found across East, South, and Southeast Asia.
Bamboo weaving is a form of bambooworking and a traditional Japanese craft, with a range of different applications, weaving styles and appearances. Japanese bamboo weaving is particularly well known for its use in basket weaving.
Pat Courtney Gold was a Wasco Native fiber artist and basket weaver from the Columbia River area of Oregon. She graduated with a BA in mathematics and physics from Whitman College and worked as a mathematician-computer specialist before beginning her career in basket weaving. Gold harvested traditional plant fibers to use in her work, including dogbane, cattail, sedge grass, red cedar bark and tree roots. Her pieces often reflected the natural world along the Columbia River, mixing traditional motifs such as condors and sturgeon with contemporary elements like airplanes. Gold also became an environmental and cultural educator, helping to spread knowledge of her ancestral heritage and basketry skills.
Lashed-lug boats are ancient boat-building techniques of the Austronesian peoples. It is characterized by the use of raised lugs on the inner face of hull planks. These lugs have holes drilled in them so that other hull components such as ribs, thwarts or other structural components can be tied to them with natural fiber ropes. This allows a structure to be put together without any metal fastenings. The planks are further stitched together edge-to-edge by sewing or using dowels ("treenails") unto a dugout keel and the solid carved wood pieces that form the caps for the prow and stern. Characteristically, the shell of the boat is created first, prior to being lashed unto ribs. The seams between planks are also sealed with absorbent tapa bark and fiber that expands when wet or caulked with resin-based preparations.
The Southeastern Iberian shrubs and woodlands is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in southwestern Europe. It lies in southeastern coastal Spain, along the Mediterranean Sea.
Rope-soled shoes have soles made from rope or rope fibres. They were formerly a cheap, disposable, hand-made item. However, the widely made espadrille comes in many styles and can include expensive fashion items.
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