Coir Craft - Kerala
The twine is made traditionally by the people of Alleppy. The process of making the twine is widely carried on by the women, whereas, the men folk mainly work on the machinery, transportation and weaving process.
Process of Making a Twine:
The refined fibre is accumulated in a hand-made pouch affixed to the waist of the worker. The handful of fibre is rubbed against the hands forming a twist of the fibre. One end of the twisted fibres is looped and hooked to the motorized machine and the other end of the twisted fibres is fixed to the manual spinning machine. The fibre is automatically conveyed from the pouch to form the thread. The women worker walks backward and ply the thread by concurrently handling both the threads with both the hands to make the twine of uniform thickness. Using the manual spinning wheel, the two twisted fibre threads are spun to make the twine more thick. Finally, the twine is attached by rubbing the two twines together to form a long twine.
Process of Spinning the Twine in to Spools and Spindles:
The twisted twine is spun into the reeling machine manually by rotating the reeling machine to make spools. These warp beam are arrayed on a metal frame in twelve spools at a time to make the warp. To make the spindles, the twine is passes into a small pipe for easy handling of the twine. The pipe is held in one hand and the wheel is manually spun to make the spool. This spun twine is converted into spindles. These spindles are used in the fly-shuttle.
