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C6 Basket-making materials: Rattans and Willows
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Willows
Willows, sallows and osiers are common names given to species in the genus Salix. Various species, such as Salix viminalis, S. purpurea and S. triandra, have been cultivated for almost as long as they have been used for basket making. The strongest and finest is probably S. triandra or almond-leafed willow. Nearly all commercial basket-making willows in the UK are of this species, mostly of the variety "Black Maul".
Salix is a very diverse genus with species that range in size from low, creeping shrubs to 20 m trees. Willows are commonly found in the northern temperate regions of the world, rarely in the tropics, and many grow near streams or in damp and boggy places. Their flowers are borne in catkins, male and female on different trees, and the fertilised seeds are dispersed by the wind. The timber is light but tough and elastic and does not splinter under strain.
How is willow grown?
Much of the present-day commercial cultivation of willow in Britain is localised around the rivers Parret, Tone and Isle in Somerset. The land has a high water table and is liable to occasional floods, so is not useful for other types of cultivation. But the soil of the area is fertile and well-drained, ideal for the willow.
To establish new beds, willow cuttings, 20-30 cm long, are pushed by hand into the prepared soil, spaced to accommodate machinery. The beds are weeded and cultivated and may be productive for up to 50 years. Each year the shoots are cut back close to the ground to encourage several straight, unbranched stems to develop from a single shoot, a process known as coppicing. The stems stop growing at the end of summer, reaching a height of around 2 m. They are cut in early November when the wood is mature to produce the willow rods (also known as withies or osiers).
How is willow processed?
The willow rods are firstly sorted for length and cleaned. In brown rods the bark is left on, but for white and buff rods it is stripped off. Machines are now used to "strip the willow", once done by hand. For buff rod production, bundles of willow rods are placed in a tank of water and boiled for up to ten hours. The softened rods are then stripped while they are still warm. The rods are dried, either in sheds or in the open, before storage. Finally, the rods are tied up for sale into bundles called "bolts".
The quality of the rods varies considerably; for example, rods boiled in the summer are more pliable and tend to have a lighter, more golden colour than the rods from the winter boiling which may have an orange tint and are less pliable. Any black patches showing fungal damage make the rod unacceptable for working.
How are willow baskets made?
The tools for making willow baskets are simple and inexpensive. The most important item is the "plank" which rests on the ground to form a firm workplace on which the maker can set his materials. A sloping "lapboard" resting on the basket-maker's lap is the platform on which the basket is made. The basket-maker has a particular set of tools, such as shears, knives and a beating iron for knocking down the weaving.
The only essential for willow basket making is a trough of water at least 2 m long. Willow is stored dry but to be made pliable it must be soaked in water. The basket-maker usually soaks the rods in clean water for an hour and then they are left to stand overnight in a cool draught-free area to mellow. This ensures that the water penetrates uniformly through to the pith for several hours so that the rods are sweet-smelling and pliable but not wet or slippery. Brown rods require about seven days soaking before they are ready for working. Willow must be kept damp as it is worked and this is why traditional basketry workshops are often cool and humid.
Rattans
What are rattans?
Rattans are climbing palms with long thin flexible stems, found mainly in the tropical rainforest. They climb through the rainforest canopy by means of barbed whip-like growths on the ends of the leaves or modified inflorescences. Rattan stems either grow singly or produce clusters of suckers at the base; very few are branched. After passing through a rosette stage whilst the stem grows thicker rather than longer, subsequent growth is simply an increase in length (sometimes achieving average rates of growth of 3-4 m a year and more).
Where do rattans grow?
Most of the 600 or so rattan species are Asian in origin, although a few grow in West Africa and Australia. Only twenty-five species are used commercially with the best quality canes coming from the genera Calmus and Daemonorops, mainly found in Malaysia and Indonesia.
How are the canes grown?
Rattans are usually harvested from the wild, being the most important commercial product of the rainforest after timber. To gather the rattans, the workers sever the stems with an axe and pull them down from the canopy. They are transported as quickly as possible to the processing site before the quality of the canes deteriorates.
How are the canes processed?
Firstly any leaves and debris are removed from the rattan stems. The large canes are then boiled in oil, either coconut or diesel, to remove gums and resins and to increase their durability. The surface layers of the rattan contain silica, giving them an attractive shiny appearance. However, when flexibility is important the silica layer is removed by passing the canes through rollers which bend them and cause the silica to flake off. Strips of the cane surface may be prepared by passing the canes through a machine which presses them against knives. The inner part of the cane is put through the machine once more and split into various sizes from 1 mm to 18 mm in diameter, known as split cane. In commerce, stems greater than 2 cm in diameter are called canes whilst those of a smaller diameter are described as rattans.
How are canes used?
The larger canes are used intact as the frames of cane furniture whilst the strips of the surface layers and split cane are used to weave the back and side panels as are the intact small canes. Locally rattans are made into a wide variety of useful products. The solid roots of the rattan are made into polo balls and mallets. The waste fibre from cane splitting is used locally for cheap upholstery stuffing.
Furniture and other goods are made from the cane in Asia and also in Europe and North America. The Philippines, China, Indonesia and Thailand all export rattan products in addition to the cleaned canes. The value of the market for rattan products is £1,500 million a year.
Why are canes important?
The rattans are very important to the economy of rural people in South-east Asia, who harvest the canes from the forests, to supplement their income from agriculture. Countries contributing to the total of half a million full-time workers employed by the rattan harvesting, processing and weaving industries are the Phillipines, Thailand, China, Kerala in southern India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Will there be a future supply of canes?
If harvesting is well-planned, rattans should be a renewable resource. However, over-harvesting of the highest quality long canes, particularly in the Indonesian forests, is damaging the long-term prospects for their survival. Rattans are being studied to find species suitable for plantations; so far two small diameter canes have been identified but, as yet, no large diameter canes.