Mat Making Honor

Arts & Crafts

Requirements

1. Mention at least 2 materials that are used in your country to make mats.

   Answer: In Brazil, the two materials most used to make mats are buriti straw (Mauritia flexuosa, a palm of the Cerrado and Amazon) and cattail fiber (Typha domingensis, a plant of flooded areas). Carnauba, rush, sisal and braided bamboo are also used in different regions of the country. — The buriti is a symbol of the Cerrado and of Northern Brazil — quilombola and indigenous communities use the straw to make mats, baskets and hampers. The cattail is abundant in marshes and was traditionally used by fishermen and riverside dwellers of the Pantanal and the South to make mats locally called "rush mats".

2. Explain and demonstrate how to prepare these materials for making mats.

   Answer: You cut the straw (buriti or cattail) while still fresh, remove the rigid central part, and separate the long fibers. Then you wash it in running water, let it dry in the shade for 3-7 days so it does not yellow, and lightly crush it to soften it before weaving. Damp material is woven more easily. — Drying in the shade preserves the color and the flexibility — fiber exposed to direct sun becomes brittle. Extractivist communities of the Cerrado beat buriti straw with a stone to soften it, a technique called "amassação", documented by ethnobotanists of the Brazilian Institute for Society, Population and Nature (Instituto Sociedade, População e Natureza).

3. Give the name of at least 2 plants from your country that can be used to make dyes. Say where they are found and how the dye is prepared from them.

   Answer: In Brazil, two common plants are annatto (Bixa orellana, Amazon and Cerrado), which provides red dye from its seeds, and genipap (Genipa americana), which gives a bluish-black dye from the green fruit. The seeds or the fruit juice are boiled in water, strained and used directly on the mat fiber. — Brazilian indigenous peoples have used annatto for centuries as body paint and sun protection (bixin is a carotenoid); green genipap only reveals its dark color after oxidation on the skin/fiber (24h). The preparation is ethnobotany documented by Berta Ribeiro in the book "Arte indígena, linguagem visual".

4. Demonstrate how to use natural and synthetic dyes to color mats.

   Answer: You can soak the fiber in the boiled natural dye (annatto, genipap) for 30 minutes before weaving, dry it in the shade and fix it with 10% vinegar. For synthetic dyes (aniline), dilute in hot water, soak the fiber for 15 minutes, rinse in cold water and also dry in the shade before weaving. — Vinegar fixes the natural tannin in the fiber (a homemade mordant), preventing fading; synthetic anilines require heat and rinsing to release the excess. Artisan communities of the Cerrado document these techniques in the Central do Cerrado project, with publications by Embrapa Cerrados on buriti fibers.

5. Make at least 2 mats with at least 2 different types of weaves. One of them must have a very fine weave.

   Answer: You must make two mats using different weaves — for example, one with a plain weave (1x1 over-under) that is very fine and another with a diagonal weave (twill) that is coarser. Present both to the instructor to demonstrate mastery of the two techniques and of the material worked. — The fine weave requires narrow fibers (3-5 mm wide) and more time, being standard in mats for personal use; the diagonal twill forms geometric patterns and is traditional in indigenous communities such as the Wajãpi of Amapá, according to the 2012 ethnographic record of the Brazilian Museu do Índio (Museum of the Indian).