Raw materials

Rye straw

In France it is still cultivated, reaped and worked by some farmers anxious to maintain their, know how for straw bottoming craftsmen less and less in number and for manufacturers of seats weakened by the competing import of cheap furniture from Asia.

Rye straw reaped in summer will be turned either with rye cut in spring (this traditional way which gives a beautiful straw bottoming strong and lasting is ours) or for example with marsh grasses, sea grasses or raffia (raffia which allows a thinner strand is much more delicate.

Rattan cane

Rattan cane is produced in South East Asia. It is the threaded bark of a creeper palm -Calamus rotang- the generic term comes from the Greek calamos i.e. reed and rotang is the Malaysian word to name the material pulled from its stems from which comes our word rattan.

This palm tree has a thin and flexible trunk with a diameter varying from some millimetres to some centimetres. It climbs towards light thanks to its thorns along the giant trees of tropical forests until reaching their top, then comes down and crawls on the ground to the next tree. This creeper grows quickly and can stretch in one year to several meters; it can be more than 100 meters long.

Harvested and not uprooted, rotang grows during 6 to 12 years.

Its industrial cultivation is recognised as ecologically sound, helping to fight deforestation of virgin forests. It is a welcomed development factor in South East Asia.

To obtain the cane, the rattan creeper, cut and peeled, will be worked in an appropriate manner. Its bark will be cut and threaded in its length in strands of various widths. For traditional cane work the widths of 1.6 mm to 3 mm are used.