A Trip to a Coir Factory
After leaving the houseboats, on our way to Kochi, we stopped as a coir factory. Coir is the rough fiber that can be extracted from the husk of a coconut. It can be spun and dyed into fibers and used in such products as mats. This factory seemed like a coconut to finished product factory. First the fiber is spun into long strands.
This work appears to be done by women only and is similar to what happened in the silk factory we visited (and which did not allow photographs) -- the spinning work was done by women and the other work including dying and weaving was done by men. And I don't mean predominately women and predominately men -- only women and only men. (If you don't count the boy in the previous photograph who was obviously there in lieu of child care. Whether this happens all the time or was a special occasion of some sort I cannot say. Note that here, as in almost every other place we saw working women, they are clothed in brightly colored saris. And, yes, this includes working in the fields.
After the long fibers are joined into very long strands (and there will be video posted eventually showing this technique), it is rolled.
The strands are then dyed and placed on the loom feeder
and then woven into various colored items.
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