Straw plaiting is a method of manufacturing textiles by braiding straw and the industry that surrounds the craft of producing these straw manufactures. Straw is plaited to produce products including straw hats and ornaments, and the process is undertaken in a number of locations worldwide.
To plait comes from late 14c., "to fold, gather in pleats," also "to braid or weave," from Old French pleir "to fold," variant of ploier, ployer "to fold, bend," from Latin plicare "to fold". [1]
Straw can be plaited for a number of purposes, including: the thatching of roofs, to create a paper-making material, for ornamenting small surfaces as a "straw-mosaic", for plaiting into door and table mats, mattresses and for weaving and plaiting into light baskets and to create artificial flowers. Straw is also plaited to produce bonnets and hats.
Straw weaving is an ancient folk craft of Belarus. In 2022 it was added to a UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. [2]
The plaiting of straw in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Berkshire and Hertfordshire formerly gave employment to many thousands of women and young children; but this had largely ended by the beginning of the 20th century: the number of English plaiters, all told, was not more than a few hundreds in 1907, as compared with 30,000 in 1871. [3]
The districts around Luton in Bedfordshire and the neighbouring counties [4] were, since the beginning of the 17th century, the British home of the straw-plait industry. The straw of certain varieties of wheat cultivated in that region is, in favourable seasons, possessed of a fine bright colour, tenacity and strength.
The straw is cut as in ordinary harvesting, but is allowed to dry in the sun, before binding. Subsequently, straws are selected from the sheaves, and of these the pipes of the two upper joints are taken for plaiting. The pipes are assorted into sizes by passing them through graduated openings in a grilled wire frame, and those of good color are bleached by the fumes of sulphur. Spotted and discoloured straws are dyed either in pipe or in plait. The plaiters work up the material in a damp state, either into whole straw or split straw plaits. Split straws are prepared with the aid of a small instrument having a projecting point which enters the straw pipe, and from which radiate the number of knife-edged cutters into which the straw is to be split. The straws were put through a small mangle to flatten them. They were then braided to produce a woven strip which was sold on to the makers of hats, baskets and other wares. [5]
The plaiting was carried out by women and children who were taught the skills in plait schools. At its peak in the early nineteenth century a woman could earn more by plaiting than a man could earn on the land. There was concern that the industry led to dissolution and idleness in the menfolk. [5]
The English industry was eventually wiped out by free trade from 1860 which allowed imports of plait from Italy and later China and Japan at a much lower competitive price.
Worldwide, the most valuable straw for plaits is grown in Tuscany, and from it the well-known Tuscan plaits and Leghorn hats are made. The straw of Tuscany, specially grown for plaiting, is distinguished into three grades of quality. The highest quality is Pontederas Semone, the second highest is Mazzuolo. The bulk of the plaits are made from this grade of straw. The third grade, Santa Fioro, is only used to plait "Tuscan pedals" and braids. The wheat-seed for these straws is sown very thickly on comparatively elevated and arid land, and it sends up long attenuated stalks. When the grain in the ear is about half developed the straw is pulled up by the roots, dried in the sun, and subsequently spread out for several successive days to be bleached under the influence of alternate sunlight and night-dews. The pipe of the upper joint alone is selected for plaiting, the remainder of the straw being used for other purposes. These pipes are made up in small bundles, bleached in sulfur fumes in a closed chest; assorted into sizes, and so prepared for the plaiters. Straw-plaiting is a domestic industry among the women and young children of Tuscany and some parts of Emilia. Tuscan plaits and hats vary enormously in quality and value; the plait of a hat of good quality may represent the work of four or five days, while hats of the highest quality may each occupy six to nine months in making. The finest work is excessively trying to the eyes of the plaiters, who can at most give to it two or three hours' labor daily.
Xuhang straw plaiting, produced in Xuhang, Jiading, has a long history. As early as the Tang dynasty more than 1,000 years ago, the plaiting of yellow grass has become one of the court tributes. In 1914, an Italian firm hired Wang Jihe and Zhu Shilin from Xuhang as agents to purchase yellow grass plaits from farmers in Xuhang, and resold them in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. Since then, Xuhang yellow grass plaits began to go abroad and enter the international market.
![Foreign visitors at Xuhang, Jiading 48kh'[?]T.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/48%D2%B3%CD%BC%C6%AC.jpg/208px-48%D2%B3%CD%BC%C6%AC.jpg)
With the gradual expansion of Xu Xing's influence and the continuous improvement of artistic connotation such as the dove of peace slippers designed and woven by Li Yueqin and the continuous efforts of preserving this unique type of folk art by the honorable straw plaiting artist Xu Xing, in 1994, the town of XuHang was named the "Hometown of Chinese Folk Art" by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. The art of Xuhang straw plaiting made it to the National Intangible Heritage List in 2008.
Today, visitors from all over the world travel to the town of Xuhang in Jiading of Shanghai to visit a local museum to relive the ancient history of how Xuhang straw was planted, harvested, processed and turned into beautiful functional art work featuring this unique form of world folk art. It has played significant role in common people's daily life, whether used in a pair of straw slippers, straw hat, straw basket, or a straw mat in ancient and modern China.
Friedrich Ratzel in The History of Mankind [6] reported as follows:-
Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield by weight of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number of different uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and basket making.
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft, woof, or filling. The method in which these threads are interwoven affects the characteristics of the cloth. Cloth is usually woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. A fabric band that meets this definition of cloth can also be made using other methods, including tablet weaving, back strap loom, or other techniques that can be done without looms.
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.
An Ecuadorian hat, also known as a Panama hat, a jipijapa hat, or a toquilla straw hat, is a traditional brimmed straw hat of Ecuadorian origin. Traditionally, hats were made from the plaited leaves of the Carludovica palmata plant, known locally as the toquilla palm or jipijapa palm, although it is a palm-like plant rather than a true palm.
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.
A mat is a hard floor covering that generally is placed on a floor or other flat surface. Mats serve a range of purposes including:
A straw hat is a wide-brimmed hat woven out of straw or straw-like synthetic materials. Straw hats are a type of sun hat designed to shade the head and face from direct sunlight, but are also used in fashion as a decorative element or a uniform.
Sennit is a type of cordage made by plaiting strands of dried fibre or grass. It can be used ornamentally in crafts, like a kind of macramé, or to make straw hats. Sennit is an important material in the cultures of Oceania, where it is used in traditional architecture, boat building, fishing and as an ornamentation.
Bast fibre is plant fibre collected from the phloem or bast surrounding the stem of certain dicotyledonous plants. Some of the economically important bast fibres are obtained from herbs cultivated in agriculture, for instance flax, hemp, or ramie, but bast fibres from wild plants, such as stinging nettle, and trees such as lime or linden, willow, oak, wisteria, and mulberry have also been used. Bast fibres are soft and flexible, as opposed to leaf fibres from monocotyledonous plants, which are hard and stiff.
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.
Straw paintings are craft objects made by shaping straw into patterns and representational images.
Lauhala, lau meaning "leaf" in the Hawaiian language, refers to the leaves of the hala tree (Pandanus tectorius).
Australian Aboriginal fibrecraft refers to the various ways Aboriginal Australians create fibres traditionally. Materials used depend on where the people live in Australia.
Māori traditional textiles are the indigenous textiles of the Māori people of New Zealand. The organisation Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, the national Māori weavers' collective, aims to preserve and foster the skills of making and using these materials.
Reed mats are handmade mats of plaited reed or other plant material.
Dame Rangimārie Hetet was a New Zealand tohunga raranga, a master of Māori weaving.
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.
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.
The buntal hat is a traditional lightweight straw hat from the Philippines made from very finely-woven fibers extracted from the petioles of buri palm leaves. It is traditionally worn by farmers working in the fields and was a major export of the Philippines in the first half of the 20th century. It can also be paired with semi-formal barong tagalog as well as informal attire. Its main centers of production are Baliwag, Bulacan, and (historically) Sariaya and Tayabas in Quezon Province. Buntal hats produced in Baliwag are also sometimes known as balibuntal hats, and are regarded as superior in quality to other types of buntal hats.
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