The banana plant not only gives us delicious fruit, but it also provides material for the textile industry: the banana fibre. At PrimaBerry we chose it for some special products.
Banana fibre is obtained from the pseudo-stem of a banana plant. The material has got such good properties, that its use is so vast. After all, as awareness grows about the negative impact of synthetic and non-eco-friendly fibres, it is more important today than ever to create solutions for different products that don’t prejudice our world, our health, our living, and our future.
With that in mind, one of the exciting earth-friendly alternative fabrics is banana fibre. You would not believe how strong it is, whether used alone or blended with cotton fibre or other synthetic fibres. But banana fibre also finds use in high-quality paper, packing cloth for agricultural produce, ropes, cables and jewellery. That’s right: jewellery. So, this was an obvious choice for the first pieces of jewellery of PrimaBerry.
PrimaBerry jewellery with an unlikely source
The banana fibre products are popular for their household utility use, we all know that. But we want to keep surprising our customers, providing them with beautiful and useful items to wear on a daily basis. That was when jewellery come to our minds.
Although innovative, this isn’t something that is completely new, because Chinese and African cultures are very known for the use of banana fibre to make necklaces, bracelets, and earrings… As a result, we made a jewellery collection that will surprise you.
The earrings and necklaces in natural banana fibre that you can find at PrimaBerry are handcrafted and eco-friendly. They are complemented with other materials, like recycled paper, vegan leather or brass to create fashion statement jewellery that gives you a sense of power and lifts your self-esteem. After all, beauty is not only about what we wear, but also how the things we wear make us feel.
Banana fibre: find more about the structure
Bananas are one of the most important global food crops and are currently cultivated in around 129 different countries worldwide. Banana fibre is produced from the pseudostem of the banana plant, which would usually be burnt or left to rot. So, by giving it a new life you can find a useful resource for so many things.
Banana fibre is one of the world’s strongest natural fibres and it is also biodegradable. It consists of thick-walled cell tissue, bonded together by natural gums, looking like the natural bamboo fibre. But it has more ability, fineness and tensile strength, which is why it can be used to make different products for different economic sectors.
The extraction of banana fibres is also done in biological and natural processes, which includes degumming – the step that follows the extraction and that allows the removal of heavily coated, non-cellulosic gummy material from the cellulosic part of plant fibres.
This method of extraction is done by the talented hand of artisans in the cottage industry sector because extracting fibre by machine has not been very successful in terms of quality.
The banana fibres have to be washed thoroughly and hung up in sunlight to dry as soon as they are stripped – a process that may take around five hours.
So, as you can see, it is a structured and complex method to get you a natural fibre source for different situations. Besides that, when compared to other fibres, the production of banana fibre is extremely resource-efficient, since the resource is cheap, renewable and widely available. Also, no additional water or land is needed for its production. If given the case of being left untreated, the pieces of banana fibre are also entirely biodegradable.
Positive characteristics of banana fibre
We use it in jewellery, because of its benefits, and availability, but also for its low impact on the environment. Check out all the main good characteristics of banana fibre:
- It has a high level of quality.
- Banana fibre is like bamboo fibre and ramie fibre, but its fineness and spinnability are better than the two other materials.
- The chemical composition of banana fibre is cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.
- It is incredibly strong.
- Banana fibre can have a shiny appearance depending upon the extraction and how the rest of the process is done.
- It is exceptionally lightweight.
- It has strong moisture absorption quality, so it can absorb as well as release moisture fast.
- It is bio-degradable, so has zero negative effect on the environment.
Have a look at our Banana Fibre Collection here: https://primaberry.com/product-category/materials/banana-fibre/
