Mats

Recommendation points

• Materials for making mats
• Mat weaving technology
• Laying the mat
• Care and storage of the mat
• Manufacturers and prices

A modern person has fewer and fewer opportunities to communicate with nature, so we try to attract it to our homes, surrounding ourselves with environmentally friendly things. Rugs made from plant fibers are known as rugs. This word is a distorted French China (China), since the first mats were brought from China. They were made of rice straw and paper, they looked very simple, the only decoration was the interlacing of threads of various thicknesses and different textures.

The history of the mat goes back centuries. In the Egyptian tombs of the Valley of the Kings, reed and lotus mats have been found. In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, the floors of houses were decorated with woven carpets or mats. In Japan, to this day, wicker floor mats – tatami – are an indispensable element of the interior. They were quite fashionable at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Fashion returned to the West in the 90s of the XX century, with the spread of ecological design. The mats came in handy: besides the fact that they are made of the purest natural materials, they do not cause allergies yet, and are also beneficial for health with their light massage effect on the feet. And if the weaving is thick, then they also provide good sound insulation..

Materials for making mats

The basic materials for making mats are traditional and have not changed since ancient times. The fibers were extracted from the leaves or stems of plants by pulling or separating from the pulp. People would weave them together, dry them and make something like a thread or thin rope, then weave them in a simple way and get a durable and beautiful floor covering. The most common plant materials for making mats are reed, jute, sisal, and coir. Less commonly used rice, flax, hemp, cotton.

Cane

It grows on marshy soil and on the banks of water bodies. There are a lot of types of reeds from which mats can be made; different countries have their own varieties of this plant, which are traditionally used to create floor or wall coverings. The height of the reed does not exceed 1.5 meters, so the craftsmen to make the canvas have to connect the stems of several plants to get a long rope.

Jute

This is a genus of shrubs, semi-shrubs and herbs of the linden family – there are about 100 species and is found in the tropics of Asia, Africa and America. Jute mats are distinguished by their special “endurance” and strength of the stems, therefore they are often used for technical purposes or in places with heavy traffic, for example, in offices or for rugs in front of the door.

Sisal

It is a fiber from the leaves of American agave, which grows mainly in Mexico, Kenya, Tanzania. The length and strength of the resulting thread depends on the length and thickness of the fiber. The best mats are those that are woven from the long fibers of the leaves..

Coir

It is a fiber from the intercarp of coconut. Not to be confused with copra (this is the dried tissue of the palm fruit used to make coconut oil, margarine, and soap). The best coir is obtained from unripe nuts, which are soaked in sea water to give the fiber elasticity, and then combed out. The longest fibers (25-30 cm) are used to make coir thread, on which mats are made, as well as mats, ropes and ropes that do not get wet and do not sink in water, and fishing nets. The short and tangled fiber of the ripe nuts is used to fill the mattresses. Coir is produced mainly in India and on the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

Rice

Rice straw mats are thinner and softer than their counterparts. The Chinese and Japanese, immediately after the rice is harvested, weave a mat from the stems and then dry it in the sun. In this case, the mat acquires flexibility, a specific pleasant aroma and strength. At firms focused on the western market, the stems are dried, then the mats are tied. At the same time, the strength of the material is not lost at all, but the smell disappears, moreover, the fibers become a little coarser than those used fresh.

Cotton

It was first used by nomads; this is a very cheap and easy to manufacture material, the threads from which were obtained very durable, suitable not only for clothing, but also for the manufacture of interior items. In the production of carpets and mats, nowadays it is used as a mesh base, which protects them from deformation..

Paper

It is made from cotton or rice, undergoes special processing and is not afraid of water, unlike ordinary paper. It is expensive and time-consuming to make mats entirely out of paper, so the price of such a handmade product can go up to $ 5,000. Paper mats in the store are quite affordable, it is usually paper combined with rice straw (usually in a ratio of 50 to 50% or 70 to thirty%). In addition to Japan, where natural paper mats are still made, it is traditionally considered a paper mat if it contains at least 30% paper fiber..

Linen

Fabrics are made from ordinary fiber flax, which is not news at all in Russia. But when several fibers are combined into a bundle, a thin and strong material is obtained, suitable for creating the finest rugs. They are very beautiful, but, unfortunately, short-lived, therefore they are only suitable for walls. And then there is Indonesian flax, which looks more like a cactus, from the leaves of which very long and thick fibers are drawn. Residents of Indonesia weave mats from them, which are then sold to tourists. These are extremely rare in stores..

Hemp

This plant can also be useful. The most popular hemp threads are used in countries such as Holland, Jamaica, USA, Cuba, Canada. This industrial crop is easy to grow and inexpensive to process, which makes it possible to obtain relatively cheap raw materials. In Russia, hemp rugs can only be found in specialized esoteric stores. They are not produced in Western countries, but in India and Sri Lanka, therefore they do not differ in special quality.

Seaweed

Not everyone knows that many seaweeds are also used to make mats. The long fibers of the seaweed are dried, twisted and woven into thin and very flexible rugs. Such products are usually not dyed, have a natural green, brown or beige color. They have a faint smell of sea salt, which can be used to determine if it is a fake or not. Produced in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Bali and Jamaica.

Mat weaving technology

Most of the mats are woven by hand, but it is expensive and time consuming. A machine method is also possible, which reduces the cost of the mat. There are different ways of weaving the mat fabric: in the form of braids, checkerboard, a combination of different fibers. Even a wool carpet with sisal inserts is possible. European firms use felt lining or cotton netting for these mats. On the seamy side, the mat is covered with a layer of natural latex. If, during bending, the mat layer separates from the latex coating, or if the mat stratifies into three components: latex, the base and the fiber itself, then the thing is of poor quality and will not last long.

Most of the material for flooring comes to Russia in huge rolls, like those in which the carpet is rolled. The width of the roll is most often from 3.5 to 4 m. All firms selling vegetable fiber mats in Moscow offer two types of them: floor covering or carpet of any size cut from a roll. Such carpets are trimmed with a border made of leather, fabric, brocade, cotton or cord of various colors and patterns. The border is sewn on or fixed with glue, the work can take up to seven days – it depends on the size and complexity of processing.

Laying the mat

The wicker covering can be laid on the floor in various ways: on glue, under skirting boards, on hooks, on double-sided tape – almost like a regular carpet. In principle, this can be done with your own hands, the difficulty will consist only in joining two pieces. The latex seamy side simplifies the installation process. It will not slide on the floor, and when laying on a large area, the use of special glue is not required, since the presence of latex allows the canvas to hold its own weight. Before gluing to the floor, the coating is brought into the room and remains at room temperature for 48 hours. A special adhesive based on synthetic resin without thinner is used for the sticker.

Care and storage of the mat

Different mats in material need different care. Sisal, hemp, rice and paper mats are severely affected by spilled beverages, and stains are nearly impossible to remove. They are afraid of dampness, so if you noticed greenish or brownish spots on a roll or rug, stains, streaks, if the material laid out on a flat surface moves in waves, giving a musty smell, then, most likely, the mat was stored incorrectly, which is why its service life reduced by three times.

Products made from jute and coir are not only quite resistant to such troubles, but also calmly withstand when they are walked on in dirty shoes. It is best to use dry cleaning with a vacuum cleaner. Cleaning will not be tedious because, unlike pile carpets, dust and particles do not collect at the base and are easy to clean. The mats will withstand cleaning lightly with a damp cloth, but never with hot water. Vinegar based plant fiber products can be used.

But if, for example, carpets and floor coverings are treated with a special compound that protects them from moisture, dust and dirt and stains and contributes to easier care, then cleaning agents and moisture are contraindicated, as they will wash off the coating.

If all operating conditions are met, then for sisal the average service life is 5 years; jute, coir, reed and hemp will live about 7 years, rice and paper – 4 years.

You need to know that a coating on a latex backing will last longer than without it. And that the thicker the mat without a base, the shorter its lifespan. In any case, it does not hurt to ask the seller what materials the vending coating is made of, what are the conditions for its use and cleaning.

Rice, paper, cane, hemp carpets and flooring are good in living spaces. Jute and coir can be used in hallways or in the office. By the way, coconut rugs perfectly tolerate moisture and cold, so they can be laid in winter gardens. And a special water-repellent impregnation allows using these products in swimming pools and saunas. Sisal are laid both at home and in the office, it all depends on the special marks of the manufacturer. When installed on stairs or any curved surface, the fold line that is visible on carpets and carpets will not be visible. Any natural fiber can be used for “warm floors”.

Manufacturers and prices

Unlike the West, in Russia, floor coverings made of plant fibers are not very common. Buyers either do not know about the existence of such materials, or are afraid of their high price, or they simply have not moved away from the stereotype that a luxurious, bright carpet made of wool or silk should lie on the floor. If you want to walk on plant rugs, be sure to ask what materials they are made of, what are the conditions for their use and cleaning..

On the Russian market, they are traded by Astra, JAB, Ruckstuhl (Germany), Tasibel, Unlimited Creation (Belgium), IKEA (Sweden). In the catalogs you will find a huge palette of colors: red, green, blue, black, in the collections there are also unusual shades: aqua, hot pink. Exclusive carpets, very unusual in design, are woven and painted by hand. You can make a custom rug according to your own sketch.

The price for our wonderful fibrous braids is made up of their size, complexity and weaving pattern, quality of material, technology of its processing. Hand weaving especially increases the cost. Rugs are considered inexpensive from $ 44 to $ 200 per 1 sq. meter. But if the thing is in a single copy … For example, Unlimited Creation presents a carpet of coir braids in a natural color with a special fiber softening treatment and woven with blue reed threads measuring 1.5×3 m, and this beauty costs $ 7000. Marvelous are your works, O Lord! Once upon a time, Chinese and African poor people sat and slept on mats in their huts, and now it is $ 7,000. Naturalness, environmental friendliness, ethnicity, exclusive – that’s what it turns out …