Jipi japa, iraca palm, toquilla palm or the Carludovica Palmata, are some of the names of the Toquilla Straw, this material is famous for being the primary product used to make the iconic Panama Hats.

The best toquilla palm grows in the coast of Ecuador, and needs an special process before the artisans can use to make their products: handbangs, clothes, hats or accessories.

First they have to collect the raw material from the farms, selecting the best healthy leaves, green and flexible, without damage from bugs or different weather conditions.

 

Preparation

Once the best buds are taken and exhaustive selected, they are then re-classified by colour, quality and softness. Finally, with the tip of a deer’s horn is made the tearing that consists in separating the heart into even finer fibers. At the end of the process, the appearance of this is more like a plume of fibers than the green reeds that arrived on the backs of the artisans. 

 

After this process finally it’s time for cooking! Our artisans cooked the toquilla in a rustic pot with boiling water to remove chlorophyll, after a few seconds, the bunches are removed, untied and shaken to remove the excess water. Here they decide if keep the natural color of the toquilla without chlorophyll or add some color, depending of the bag’s design that they will work on.

Finally, they are hung outdoors so that the moon can finish drying them, a process that helps to fix the tone of the straw, The straw is whitened in the moonlight, this accentuates its softness. Only from this point that we have the straw ready as a viable material to weave a fine toquilla straw handbags.

 

The hardest part is weaving, it may take one day up to three months for each bag, depending the design.

 

Each handbag is a complete piece of art!