These are all “plants that might become cloth”.
The plant fibers in the photo are all materials currently being studied at Hitotsuya. From left to right: velvet banana, mulberry, wisteria, and wild ramie. Seen side by side, even fibers that all come from plants differ completely in color, thickness, stiffness, and character.
Today, we decided to boil each of these fibers in wood-ash lye.
Can Velvet Banana Become a “New Bashō Cloth”?
The material at the far left is velvet banana. At Hitotsuya, we grow velvet banana and extract fibers from its pseudostem, with the long-term goal of turning those fibers into yarn and eventually cloth.
What we are aiming for is Hitotsuya’s own “New Bashō Cloth”. Of course, this does not mean that we are trying to reproduce Bashō-fu itself, the traditional craft that has been handed down through generations.
How long a fiber can we take from the velvet bananas grown at Hitotsuya? Can we make it finer, join the fibers, turn them into yarn, dye them with plants, and finally weave them? We still have a long way to go, but what began as a plant is gradually reaching a more “fiber-like form”.
Creating an Original Hitotsuya Material from Mulberry
The two materials next to it are mulberry. One has had the outer bark removed; the other still has the outer bark. They are from the same plant, yet simply changing the treatment gives them very different appearances.
When people hear “mulberry,” the first thing that may come to mind is the “leaves” eaten by silkworms. But at Hitotsuya, we are looking at more than the leaves.
Could we create a new material from the mulberry tree itself?
That question led to the research we call “Sōjuhaku” at Hitotsuya. It is not quite paper, and it is a little different from ordinary woven cloth. By boiling, beating, and loosening stripped mulberry bark, we are experimenting to see whether its natural qualities can become an original new Hitotsuya material.
Is it better to remove the outer bark, or could leaving it on create a more interesting surface? That is one of the differences we want to watch in this wood-ash lye test.
Wisteria Is Quite a Tough One…
The coiled material around the center is wisteria. With this one, we are taking on the traditional craft of wisteria cloth.
But once we actually tried it, we found it quite difficult. Peeling the bark does not mean beautiful fibers simply appear right away――it is nowhere near that easy.
What condition should the wisteria be in? How much bark should be removed? How can we process it without damaging the fibers? And from there, how do we connect it to yarn? Even in the photo, it has a character that looks a little different from the other fibers.
To be honest, wisteria cloth still needs a great deal more research. But that is exactly what makes it interesting.
With Wild Ramie, We Want to Make a Deliberately Different Yarn
The two bundles at the far right of the photo are wild ramie. Ramie has long been used in Japan as a plant material for making cloth.
For now, however, Hitotsuya is not aiming only to reproduce the traditional method exactly as it was. What happens if we extract the fibers in a different way? What if we loosen them finely and spin them? Could that create a yarn with a character unlike conventional ramie yarn?
With those questions in mind, we are looking for an interesting yarn that can exist precisely because it comes from wild ramie. Even the same plant may become a completely different material when the processing method changes just a little.
We have also introduced our earlier yarn-making experiments with wild ramie in this article.
Making Yarn from Wild Ramie | Hitotsuya Natural Cloth Experiment →
Boiling Plant Fibers in Wood-Ash Lye
Velvet banana, mulberry, wisteria, and wild ramie come from different plants, and the extracted plant fibers are also in very different states. Today, we are boiling each one in wood-ash lye.
After boiling, how much softer will they become? Will the fibers loosen more easily? How will the color change? And beyond that, will anything appear that makes us think, “This might actually become yarn!”?
They probably will not all work in the same way. Some may make us say, “Oh, this could work!” while others may leave us thinking, “Hmm… no, this is not it.” But by comparing how each plant changes, we can begin to see what we should try next.
The Journey from Plant Fibers to Cloth Is the Interesting Part
We grow the plants, harvest them, peel the bark, and extract the fibers. We boil, beat, and loosen them, and eventually make yarn. Then we dye it, weave it, and turn it into a piece of cloth.
If you only look at the finished cloth, it is hard to imagine how long the road before it really is. But at Hitotsuya, what we find interesting is actually the process along the way.
“Can this plant really become cloth?”
We begin there and check each step one by one: “New Bashō Cloth” from velvet banana, a new material from mulberry, wisteria cloth, and a new kind of yarn from wild ramie.
So, what kinds of fibers will emerge from this wood-ash lye test? We will keep recording the results!
We are also researching plant fibers from ichibi, kenaf, kudzu, flax, and other plants. Please look forward to what comes next!