BENGALURU: Clutches, lamp shades, handbags made out of banana fibre! Wondering if you misread banana fibre for jute? No. Earthy Hues, a Bengaluru-based firm partnered by 39-year-old Rakha Rajagopal and 36-year-old Maya Ajay, has come up with a whole range of products solely made out of banana fibre. They make their products decorative by adding cotton or silk or kalamkari elements onto them.
Sharing interesting details of how a banana is harvested and weaved and how the whole process is helping empower women folk in villages in Karnataka, Maya Ajay says, “It’s from Karnataka itself. Sometimes when we are short on fibre, we try to source it from some other state. We work with different clusters. We go to the NGOs and collect the fibre from them. It’s been five years and we are in touch with several artisan groups as well.”
Both Maya and Rekha took an interest in banana fibre products when they purchased a lamp shade and clutch years back. It piqued their curiosity and they began searching for a place to buy more such products. That is how they came to establish the line in December 2011.
Five to six villages are under Maya’s supervision. Split into clusters in these villages, every group has at least ten people working in it. “All the clusters that we work with, are very particular that the fibre is taken and loomed by the women.” When asked why only the women want to participate in it, Maya recollects reading an article which stated that in most village households, only the woman is the breadwinner. The article is said to have “affected” them and hence they began looking for NGOs which work along those lines.
The villages are said to have weaving units where people can come and weave. “Few small products where they do crochet, can be taken home. For other products, you require a handloom to loom it, hence they come to the unit. To make the spindles too they have to come to the unit,.” says Maya, who now feels that the standard of living of the villagers, especially women, has significantly improved. “The children are presently able to pursue higher education. They were at a stage when they couldn’t reach out to study further. Now, their labour cost enables them to manage well,” she notes.
The fabric sourcing and designing is entirely done by Earthy Hues. Starting with a clutch and sling bag, Maya says they have come up with a whole different line of products since. “Now every three to four months, we come up with a range. We don’t have anyone else apart from the two of us. The order is taken by us, packed and sent by both of us,” she says.
Maya admits that weaving the fibre is not easy. “In a day you can only weave around two metres. Right from collecting the bark, to that bark turning into fabric, it is almost a month long process. The main job is done by the artisans,” she says.
They are presently working on bringing their own unit for stitching in Bengaluru.
Every product is said to have some element of silk or cotton or kalamkari on it. Earthy Hues does not have a range for clothing now. “Only banana fibre (in clothing) is a very difficult thing to work with. The moment it is only banana, it is very hard to handle. For example, you cannot iron it, you can only iron it when it is damp. Otherwise the fabric will get destroyed,” she points out.
Maya feels that the jute industry is flourishing as it is being experimented and worked with for its durability. “Jute has been in the market for 30-40 years now. Lot of research has gone into it. Banana fibre is at a very early stage. One day, there might be a fabric which is only banana but nothing like that has surfaced yet.”
Maya admits that the only difficulty in establishing products as such is the availability of the fabric. “Although it can be negotiated. We can’t compete with jute in terms of pricing. Jute is a mechanised process. Wherein, for us, we can produce a maximum of two metres in a day. People nowadays understand the use of handloom,” she mentions.
The crowd who often approach Earthy Hues products in exhibitions, cannot differentiate banana fibre products as they look a lot like jute products. A lot of people are appalled by it and they make enquires about the product and visit their webpage to know more. “Everybody is interested in it. Not everyone may buy it, but they ask us all about it.” says Maya.
Earthy Hues takes orders through sellfie.com and through their own portal that goes by the name earthyhues.in. Earthy Hues ships to different places in India. “A lot of sale happens in Bengaluru. There are people who buy from us, from our homes. We have our products available in different stores in the city. We retail from there,” she says.
Earthy Hues has been approached by many people on social media platform and they enjoy quite a reception.