Fibre Fous Friday: Plant Fibre Lowdown

When we talk about plant fibres people usually think of bamboo and cotton straight away as they are some of the most popular and readily available fibres.  However there are a few more that deserve to be in the spotlight and not all plant fibres are made the same!

Our plant fibres can be split into two categories bast and cellulose.  Each are processed differently which allows different fibre characteristics to come through which helps with their final uses.

Bast fibres are obtained from the stalks and stems of plants and are made from the phloem.  Those of us that remember every word of our secondary school biology lessons will remember these as the little fibres that help to transport sugars through the plant.  These are incredibly durable and strong and have been used in both garment and rope production for hundreds of years.

To extract these fibres the plant material is retted either by water or by chemical, which help to break down the soft tissues from the firmer parts that are needed to work with.  The stems are also crushed to aid this process; plants with long stems such as flax yeild longer fibres.  Once these processes have been completed the fibres are washed and separated before being put into top form.  Extracting bast fibres can be done on both small and large scales which means that if you're really keen, you can grow your own to take through the entire process - it is hard work though!

Our bast fibres include flax, cotton, hemp and himalayan nettle.

Cellulose fibres can be made using the entirety of a plant rather than just the stems.  This has resulted in a large number of different plant fibres being available for crafting, on the basis that there is enough supply of the plant.  Don't worry - nothing used in plant fibres is endangered!

The first part of processing cellulose fibres is to break down the plant material; with bast fibres this would be retted but in this case the fibres are physically mushed (technical term!) up into a pulp.  From here the pulp is dissolved into a viscous liquid that can be extruded into fine filaments which make up the strands of the final fibre.  As a result of this processing most cellulose plant fibres have a silk-like sheen to them, though they don't carry the same cool-to-the-touch characteristics. 

Our cellulose fibres include bamboo, seacell (from seaweed) and rose and can be found in our unusual fibres section.