Handicrafts Prepared from Water Hyacinth

What is water hyacinth? Do we have the capacity to control this noxious freshwater weed that has invaded Lake Victoria? How can the weed be utilized to benefit the people around the lake? Juma Misunga of Hyacinth Crafts, Kisumu had an exhibit and literature that could answer the above questions. He gave an account on how water hyacinth could be processed into handicrafts.

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a floating aquatic weed that varies in size from 8 cm to more than one meter in height.  It has showy lavender flowers and rounded and leathery leaves attached to spongy and sometimes inflated stalks. The plant has dark feathery roots. Hyacinth Crafts processes this weed into twisted or braided fibre for production of handicrafts. Hyacinth Crafts engages families around the lake in the recovery of the weed, preparation of fibre, weaving and paper-making. They produce an assortment of furniture, household accessories, office supplies, stationary and gift items that are marketed in Nairobi. This activity empowers those who would otherwise suffer hardships from reduced access to aquatic resources.

To produce the fibre, the following procedure is followed.

1. Recover.  Stems at least 50 cm long and mature are recovered from the lake.

2. Split.  The stem is then split lengthwise into slices at least 2.5 cm cross-section. The pith, soft plant tissue that surrounds the hollow stem, is removed by rubbing after one day of sun drying. 

3. Dry and dye.  The split stems are air-dried for 4 to 6 hours a day in the direct sun until stems are dry but pliable. Do not dry the strands for more than three days or they will become brittle.

4. Treat and sort.  Treat dried stems by soaking 5 kg of stems for 1 hour in 250 g of sodium meta-bisulphite dissolved in 10 liters of water, as preservative to control fungal decay. Rinse the stems in room-temperature water and air dry for 1 day. Grade the stems according to length and thickness so that the resulting rope and braid is more uniform.

5. Twist or braid.  Twist or braid the fibre into ropes of different thickness depending on the crafts to be made.

6. Join.  Combine additional tapered ends by joining additional twisted or braided segments until the desired length is achieved. The ropes and braids are distributed to local artisans, who weave them around metal or wooden frames to make handicrafts.

Water hyacinth fiber is suitable for the production of paper from cardboard and construction paper to blotter and near-bond, although the higher grades require the addition of rag or waste pulp.  Pulping the fibre is facilitated by the addition of sodium hydroxide or lime (0.5%).  As the fibre is rather dark, bleaching is required to produce lighter colored paper, or those intended for dying. Millicent Olal who founded Hyacinth Crafts is fond of saying that water hyacinth processing “Turns Gloom to Bloom”!