Up Your Style Game With These Woven Wonders

Whether you like a traditional or a more beachy look, tropical interiors call for sleek, woven pieces in indigenous materials—they finish off a room with minimal effort! With this guide, know your fiber and weave your decorative spell. Check them out below: 

1. Abaca or Manila Hemp

This versatile fiber has a high tensile strength, and when combined with resin and other binders, can become an all-purpose material. 

Used in: decorative accessories, packaging materials, paper pulp, fashion and interior textiles, sinamay cloth

2. Buri or Buntal 

The buri is a tropical palm with large, fan-shaped leaves which are just right for thatching roofs. It can be turned into thread-like strips or buntal for fine weaving. 

Used in: house thatching, decorative accessories

3. Pandan and Sabutan

The pandan plant's leaves are not only used to flavor food, as its blade-like weaves are strong, and long enough to use for weaving. 

Used in: Mats, hats, bayong, decorative and fashion accessories 

4. Raffia 

The long, thin, soft fiber from the Middle Eastern-originated palm can be dyed and woven into soft textiles.

Used in: Hats, craft twine, decorative acessories, raw textiles

5. Rattan

It is one of the essential materials for furniture making—its core can be bent with heat and used for furniture arms, base, and legs, while its split core can be woven into a durable shell or seat. 

Used in: furniture pieces and accessories 

This article ("Style School: Woven Wonders") originally appeared in the RL Notebook of the April 2010 issue of Real Living Magazine.