I was in Myanmar (Burma) for the last week and I visited a cloths factory. Some of the cloths are made with lotus flower string, which is made with the sap of the lotus flower by rolling it on a table. It looks like making a snake with Play Doh. So I purchased a 4 times yoyo-string-long rope (it cost me 3$). I tried to make 1 string but I didn’t have enough. It broke cause it was to thin. If any one wants to make one here’s what (I think) you have to do.
You need:
-1 lotus string 8 times longer than the length of the string you want to do
-water
1 book around 2 cm thin
1 weight
-1yoyo
Instructions:
Take the rope and bend it in two. Then twist it the same way a yoyo string would be and put the little loop around your yoyo. Put the rope in the water and let it dry on a table by putting a weight on it, so it doesn’t twist on the table. Try to put a little tension on the rope. Do this 2 other times.
I’m gonna look up clothing and textiles made from this material.
Since you’re in the area and have more familiarity with the end results, what sort of characteristics does the textile have, as well as the string you attempted to make?
It could be due to the fact that I’m getting the impression the strands were more monofilament and therefore, due to their make, could not handle the type of forces placed on it. I’m not a string maker, but this sounds interesting anyways.
The texture is pretty rough. I didn’t buy a string that was long enough so my string broke and the binds were very difficult to make because the string was to thin. I’m pretty sure that a 8 times bend string (as I told to do in the instructions) will play decently.
Sadly I’m not in the area anymore, so I don’t have access to these materials any more.
I did some research, and from what little I came up with, I don’t think it would have been a good material. It’s not a spun material. It’s also woven into larger items from what my research found, not the “main material”.