Amazing Fibres from Animals, the Wool Fibres

Rearing of the animal is an old phenomenon. Man has been domesticating the animals for varied reasons. Wool rearing is thus a tradition that is, if not accurate then at least 4000 years old. For the early stone age fleece served as a tunic or sleeveless shirt, worn just as it came from the animal’s back. By Neolithic time a simple loom was invented and handloom weaving was well on its way. The earliest record of woolen clothing is found for the Babylon..Incidentally the Babylon means “Land of wool”

The word "wool" is used for fibers from sheep, Angora or Cashmere goats, camel, alpaca, llama, and vicuna.

The soft, crimpy and curly fibres obtained chiefly from fleece of reared animals.  Wool is a natural protein like human hair but one differentiating factor that makes its ideal for textile is the scales on its outer surface. They are numerous and interlock under pressure, the process commonly known as felting. Scales varies with fineness and its crimp makes it a resilient fibre. High tensile strength, resilience and elasticity allows it to retain its shape better than the other fabric made from natural fibres.  Another important characteristic is its insulating properties, lightness and ability to absorb moisture. This insulating property helps the animal living in extreme weather conditions (extreme hot and extreme cold) to cope up with the nature.

                                                            

The quality of the wool is dependent upon several parameters. Fibre diameter, fibre length, amount of vegetable matter, dirt and other impurities that are clung together with the fibre.  Such dirts are removed through a process called scouring.

Fibre diameter is probably the single most important factor in determining the quality of fibre. Small diameter fibre are good for apparels and clothing. The large diameter fibres do not work well during the felting, but as they are stronger and less likely to break during carding and combing, they are more suitable for rugs and carpets.

Characteristics of Wool Fibres

n  Protein fibre

n  Flame resistant, it generally extinguishes the fire itself, when the source is removed

n  When wet, its weaker than cotton or linen

n  Fibre length, 1-14 inches

n  Wonderful insulator

n  Must be washed gently or dry cleaned

n  Easily acceptance to dyes

n  Moisture absorber

n  Doesn’t attract dirt

Animals  reared for Woolen fibres

Sheep

Sheep, is one of the first reared animal for its fibres. They are easy to herd and provides man with basic needs since ages; food and clothing. Merino breed of sheep is prized for its one of the softest and finest wool. Sheep are sheared once every year in spring, between February and June. The shearing doesn’t hurt the sheep and hardly takes 5 minutes. The wool is shorn from the sheep in a single piece, called fleece. Fleeces are rolled up and packed, the process of wool making starts from here.

Alpacca

This social herd animal is a wooly mammal. They are gentle, inquisitive, observant and intelligent. Found mostly in South America, a mature Alpacca weighs around 50 to 80 kgs and 34-38 inches tall. Alpacca are valued only for their fleece hair-like fibres, unlike the woolen fibres found in sheep. Alpacca fleece is primarily used for blankets, sweaters, hats,gloves, scarves, socks, coats, textiles, and ponchos (outer garment designed to keep body warm). The fibre is 5 times warmer and more durable than sheep’s fleece.  Its also lightweight due to microscopic air packets giving it high thermal capacity. Its fibre grows to 8-10 inches in a year and weighs anywhere between ½ to 4 kg. It is one of the finest fibres and compares with Mohair, Cashmere and other rare fibres.

Qiviut

One of the finest fibres known to man Qiviut is the downy, soft underside wool from the Arctic Musk. The soft brownish under hair of Musk ox is known as Qiviut. They have the longest hair found in animals sometimes ranging to 25 inches. It is 8 times warmer and stronger than sheep’s wool. Also it is finer than Cashmere wool. Perhaps this is the most valuable and expensive wool, mankind has ever known. Spun into wool, Qiviut is used to make warm woolen clothing, hats, scarves and mitts (a woman's glove that extends over the hand but does not cover the fingers). Musk ox shed their clothes during Summer and Spring. They are still not domesticated and the wool that attached to the bushes while the Musk Ox walks by is collected and used.

Cashmere Goats

Kashmiri or Cashmere Goats are mainly found in Jammu and Kashmir state of India, China and Mongolia. The wool obtained from them is known as Pashmina. The body of Cashmere goat has two covering. The outer covering hair is straighter and coarser known as guard hair while the under layer of hair is extremely soft and warm. The Cashmere Goats naturally shed their hairs during several week period in Spring which is then collected by Kashmiris to form the Pashmina product in India. In China and Mongolia the under hair is removed using a coarse comb. The animals are sheared in Iran, Afghanistan, Australia and New Zealand. Their hair are extremely warm to protect from extreme cold in Himalayan region. Their fibres are very adaptable and constructed well into yarns. Though they are less durable than wool but they are very warm and hence very expensive. The Cashmere Goats fibre is used in making Shawls, Scarves, Sweaters, Jackets and Gloves.

Angora rabbits/Bunny Hair

Angora hair is obtained from Angora rabbits originally seen in France, It well, pure Angora wool is difficult to make as they are too fine to be woven and simply unravel. Usually they are mixed with Cashmere Goats and Lamb’s wool. They are very warm and used in trim sweaters or knit hats and scarves. Generally viewed as Luxury fibres, they are very very expensive.aly and Japan but now reared in China, Chile and USA.

Angora Goats/Mohair Fibre

Angora Goats are mainly found in mountains of Tibet and Turkey. The long hairs ranging from 9-12 inches are silk-like fibres, known as Mohair Fibre. They are very silky, lustrous and good absorber. They resist the flame, dirt and often are anti-wrinkle. Mohair fibre is used for Carpets,Sweaters, Coats, Home Furnishing, Wigs etc.

Llamas

Llamas are the cousins of Alpacca. Llamas hair is obtained from animal which look like camel, 1/3 rd of its size. Its fibre is insulative, coarse, lightweight and brown (generally) in color. Their fiber is used for garments, rugs, blankets etc.

Camel

Camel hair is collected from two humped Bactrian Camel found from East of Turkey to China and North to Siberia. Their hair is also called high quality Coat fibre, often mixed with wool protects from both cold and hot. Fibre is strong, lustrous, smooth, warm, lightweight and thermostatic. End use includes Over coats and jackets, blazers and sweaters, Skirts, Paintbrushes, Gloves and hosiery items, Scarves, mufflers, caps Carpets and waterproofcoats etc . They are also the expensive fibers.

Geographical Indications and Handloom and Handicrafts

Sajad Ahmed, a handsome young weaver from Kanihama, West Kashmir valley, is one of (almost extinct) weaver class who make Jamawar shawls. Jamawar shawls are rare shawl made in Kashmir. It is still made with Kani (weaving stick). For a single weft sometimes more than 50 kani is used. Such intricate is the design that it takes the entire day to weave just one inch in a 48-inch width!! The fine art renders it difficult to know the back and front side of the shawl.

But all is not well with Jamawar and for that matter many crafts of our country. Our discussion with Sajad brought us to the ground realities of such a heritage. Now a day’s lots of Jamawar shawls are available in market. But the lamenting fact is not the flood of shawls, but claiming by almost all the manufacturer as their product being original and authentic.

The Kashmiri Jamawar has as many as 250 colors. But due to lack of the artistic appreciation many fake Jamawar coming from the power looms are also sold as Jamawar. This is very frustrating to those handloom weavers who fears for their tradition and livelihood. Not only this, the Pashmina wool used in Jamwar is also replaced with Chinese wool and brought into the market as Jamawar. Such scenario calls for the action, the protection and more important  promotion of Jamawar as only hand made and not the machine made shawls

The idea of Geographical Indications thus brings a ray of hope for millions of such crafters.

One of the best and most accepted agreements took place in Uruguay Round of WTO, 1994, was the introduction of Geographical Indications, GI in short. 

The term Geographical Indication (GI) is a new term though the concept is pretty old.  By its definition, a Geographical Indication is a name, could be sign, used in a product that corresponds to a specific territory or origin. Under GI, a product and its attributes are linked to a specific region. For example, Champagne from Champagne district of France, Scotch whisky from Scotland, “FLORIDA” for Oranges, “IDAHO” for Potatoes, “VIDALIA” for Onions, “WASHINGTON STATES” for apples, Bukhara Carpets, Switch Watches etc. Geographical Indication serves the same function as trademarks, because they identify the source, guarantees the quality and valuable business interest.

Any noun or adjective (need not necessarily be a geographic name) that designates geographical location would tend to be regarded by buyers as descriptive of the geographical location of origin of goods.

Backdrop and Important Provisions

Though GI is much recent terms, came in existence after the Uruguay Round of WTO, 1994, yet such type of industrial practice is found at least since the beginning of 19^th century. The concept of “Appellation of Origin (AOA)”, ”Indication of Source (IOS)”, ”Designations of Origin ”, “Protected Geographical Indications” “Indications of Geographical Origin (IGO)” are closely related concepts since pre-industrial times. 

However these different related concepts fell short of ever changing business scenarios and also fail to protect the interest of the producer group. The key socio-economic issues related to GI (more relevant to developing countries) like misappropriations, protecting traditional knowledge, improving market access, protection of reputations etc, can’t all be addressed with treaties or acts existed prior to 1994.

TRIPS Agreement incorporates provisions for protection of GIs in three articles:

• Article 22 contains a definition of GIs and sets out the general standards of protection that must be available to all GIs;

• Article 23 deals with the additional protection granted to GIs for wines and spirits; and

• Article 24 lays out certain exceptions and also creates room for future negotiations in GIs.

Socio Economic Implications

GIs can be granted to an individual, a family, a partnership, a corporation, a voluntary association etc or any organization or authority established by or under any law for the time being in force representing the interest of the producers of the concerned goods.

It protects and benefits the traditions at the same time providing allowance for its evolution over the period of time. Indian Geographical Indications protect the product for an initial 10 year period with subsequent increase of 10 year term after the expiration. However it ceases to be in force if the registration is not done with 6 months of the expiration tenure. 

Empirical evidence suggests that people in European countries are willing to spend 10% premium if the source of the product (handloom, handicraft, agricultural goods etc) is guaranteed by the sellers. This is remarkable generosity on the part of the folks. 

Another eye opening fact is that more Darjeeling Tea or Antiguan Coffee is sold than produced!!!. The above facts definitely indicate that there is a market for genuine fabric and products. 

Promotion of such genuine products having certain characteristics could be of considerable importance for the rural economy, in particular to less-advantageous and remote areas, at least by two ways:

• Premium price of the protected products, and
• Barriers for producers who spoof and fake the items as original.

GI, thus, allows the genuine folks to thrive on their creations and indigenous skills.

-- Tuscan Olive Oil from Italy is registering premium sales ever since it registered in the year 1998.

-- Bordeaux wine with ‘Pomerol’ designations commanded a premium $15 per bottle.

There are many such cases. However the fact that premium sales actually benefit the original producer group is something which is heavily dependent on the effective enforcement of these laws. 

Indian GI Scenario

It is heartening to know that unlike other 6 Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of WTO, GI is received favourably by Indian and other developing countries. 

In India 'The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999' (GI Act) was enacted in compliance with India's obligations under TRIPS at the WTO. The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 (Act 48 of 1999) came into force with effect from 15 September 2003.

The Indian GI Act defines “Geographical Indications in relation to goods as an indication which identifies such goods as agricultural goods, natural goods or manufactured goods as originating, or manufactured in the territory of a country or a region or a locality in that territory where a given quality, reputation or other characteristics of such goods is essentially attributable to its geographical origin and in the case of manufactured goods where one of the activities of either the production or of processing or preparation of the goods concerned takes place in such territory, region or locality, as the case may be.” (Source GI Registry Office, Chennai, India)

The Indian Act serves three key objectives:

n  Protect the interest of GI user groups and add prosperity to these goods

n  Protect the consumer from deception

n  Promote good bearing GI marks in international market.

Darjeeling Tea is the first product protected under GI. The need was felt when it was discovered that more Darjeeling Tea was being sold in the international market than produced. The Tea Board of India initiated the process and it was done quickly and smoothly because of timely intervention.

A striking feature of Indian GIs is the variety of product categories to which they belong. These include textiles, handicrafts,paintings, agricultural products, horticultural products, beverages, among others. This is in sharp contrast with the European scenario, where GIs predominantly relate to wines and spirits, or other food and agricultural products

Till 2010, 120 numbers of products were able to bag the GI tags. Though the study indicates that there are at least 1500 products which have the potential to get registered as GIs

India’s famous GIs

Banarasi silks             Pashmina shawls           Kashmir carpets

Basmati rice              Darjeeling tea                Assam tea

Bengal Cotton          Alphonso Mangoes   Pochampalli Ikat, tie dye

Chanderi silk             Hyderabad pearls     Kerala Nendran bananas

Jaipur silver jewellery  Nilgiri tea                   Coorg coffee

Mysore sandalproducts   Mysore Silk             Malabar pepper

Kancheepuram silks      Lonawala chikis       Nilgiri tea

Coir products from Kerala    Cardamom from Kerala

Nagpuroranges       Phulkari embroidery work  Aranmula mirrors

Significance for Folksmarket.com

The presence of laws like GI is also a bright hope for us at Folksmarket.com. One of our well wisher and buyer stated that Folksmarket.com is by the folks, for the folks and of the folks. The vision of the Folksmarket.com can not be summarized more beautiful than this. We have begun our journey to preserve these rich traditions of the crafters and weavers. We must strive for more and more skills to be protected by the GI. The GI, definitely, has given the folks a reason to celebrate.