Straw products
Straw material of many kinds are available, including straw cord, straw mats, rugs.
A few common names are seagrass cord and rush. The so called Seagrass is a grass like plant that is grown in shallow water found both in salt water and fresh water. Nowadays the plant is farmed rather than collected in the wild. Seagrass cord is comparatively more resistant to water damage then most other straw material, but yet it should be kept dried all to time to avoid mildew.
Quality of Seagrass cord has improved ove the years, especially those produced for handicraft supply (LH left twisted). Yet coarse looking and less uniform are always available (RH right twisted) for teh traditional look.
STRAW door mat can be made with seagrass, rice grass, coir. Straw floor mats are usually made with 1_cm wide straw braids,tightly sewed together into a 1'x1'(1 square foot 30cmx30cm) square. 9x36 squares are sewd together to form a piece of 324 square feet floor mat. The big piece can be tailor cut into smaller pieces to individual users need. Floor mat of other shape round, oval, square can be made.
Another kind of straw mat would be picnic mat (1-fold, or 2 fold) and beach mat, those can be rolled up or folded up and edges hemmed with color cloth.
Rush seats are mostly made with 1_ply twisted seagrass cord. 1_ply seagrass cord can be loosen and unwinded by itself, so it is always sold in small rolled up coils. (1_lb.1 kilogram or 3_lb's.). The most look alike original looking rush seat would be made with the economical wild_ginger_root. However, wild ginger root is stiff and difficult to handle. The golden color wheat/Rye sheaf covered cord has a silky shine when the straw is fresh, but the shine would wear off in matter of a few weeks and become a paper brown color.
Straw braid has been used quite often in baskets and in covering furniture.
Classical rush seats and the fashionable furniture nowadays are upholstered with straw material, like Seagrass cord, Banana leaf, Lotus leaf, water hyacinth, several other natural material,
or ... Wheat Rye Straw Braid that has nature's gold color shine .
