Thanks to yesterday's promise to show how the stems of palm fronds are used to make furniture and other useful items, I had a very enjoyable afternoon conducting 'research'.
I sat with men at a small workshop about a kilometer away from our flat and across the road from the ancient temple of Amenophis III. Fronds that have been sheared of their leaves are cut and spliced using very large blades. The stems are about 3 meters long so there is a lot of useful wood from one frond. The thick end is used for legs while the narrow tip is used for non-structural decoration and the intervening section is used for crossbeams.
This fellow is making a chicken coop. He pounds the palm shafts through holes that were driven into the crossbeams with a large awl. No nails required.
This bench or day-bed outside a local house has a mat of woven palm leaves to provide a smoother surface on which to rest. A similar design would have been used by the ordinary folks of ancient times for their beds.
All for the sake of research, I stopped by the nearby 3 Jackals Cafe to take a photo of their tables and chairs . . . there just happened to be a piece of strawberry tart and a cup of coffee there too.
And back at home, I have to say that our palm furniture has lasted 12 years in better condition than any plastic I've seen.
... visually and structurally exquisite furniture - coffee table versions of the chicken coop with a sheet of glass, mmm - and that bed, you could probably hang it from the ceiling and let it down at night - carry on with your research & breaks!!
ReplyDeleteHi Shari, I am trying to find contact information for you on your site but don't see anything. I'm interested in using one of your photos in a travel article. I see your work is available under the creative commons non-commercial license, I just wanted to be sure that editorial usage was ok. Can you please email me? many thanks
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