| Cactus silk |
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Yes, it does sound bizarre, but if you can make paper from elephant dung then why not silk from a cactus? Sabra silk is hand-loomed in Morocco from a natural vegetable fibre harvested from the sustainable agave cacti found in the Sahara Desert then dyed with vegetable dye. The thread is spun in an old-fashioned way. Often in city alleys you might see men with a hank of silk looped over a nail which has been driven into a wall, the almost invisible thread stretching many metres to where he is teasing it into the finest filaments, using small battery-powered twisters. The fabric is then woven on looms, the stripes of some of the silks alternating with camel's wool - taken from the caravans of camels from the Sahara – for added texture.
Some use chenille or cotton yarn in a contrasting colour which enhances the fabric’s almost metallic sheen. Known as agave silk, or vegetable silk or vegan silk, and also as sabra silk and you can see it in markets in skeins, made into tassels and napkin holders and used to cover buttons which will provide the final accent to a fine outfit. The fabric is a 100 percent vegetable silk prized for its quality, strength and beauty. The process to produce sabra silk has not changed for centuries. Once the cactus plant is collected from the long agave plants, the long spiky leaves are crushed and the fibres washed and hammered, then the leaves are soaked in water to separate the fibres and filaments and then these are spun and woven to make 'silk threads' which are then dyed in different colours. The textile produced has a high elasticity and this makes sabra silk almost wrinkle-free. The silk can be washed at 30 degrees or dry-cleaned, and it is safe to iron the fabric on a low steam. Beautiful, but very unusual! |
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