CHENNAI: A city based weaver, who holds the Limca record for weaving a saree out of 25 natural fibres, has come out with yet another innovation. This time, he has woven a saree out of beech wood fabric. The weaver, who promises that the beech wood saree has the ability to cool a body, has woven it ahead of the Chief Minister’s birthday. He has already sent a letter requesting an audience with her to present her the saree.C Sekar of Anagaputhur thought of the idea of hand-weaving a saree out of beech wood fabric when he visited a textile expo last year in Coimbatore and found a fabric made of the wood by weavers in China. “Beech wood is available in places like Kerala and Orissa and can naturally cool the body. That is why I have made it ahead of the summer season,” he said.After testing whether the beech wood fabric could hold colours and had side effects, Sekar bought pulp of the tree and processed it to make fibre. After adding colours, he included cotton and silk to weave a shiny, smooth saree with the warp yarn made of cotton and weft made of beech wood fibre and the ‘pallu’ made of silk. “I tested the coloured fibre by soaking it in cold water to see if it runs colour. Then, I rolled the fabric around my hand every night before sleeping, to see if I get side effects. Then, I wove a saree and made my wife wear it regularly to see if she suffered any itching,” Sekar explains. Sekar, who had earlier made sarees out of many natural fibres, including banana and bamboo, and even wove a shirt that he claimed would reduce blood pressure, promised that his saree was purely organic and strictly had no chemicals. “I have already sent a letter to the CM’s cell to get her appointment, so I can gift it to her on her birthday,” he said.Beech wood sarees could cost anywhere between `1,200 and `2,500 and could be purchased from weavers. He has started supplying the sarees to one shop in Chennai and many in Bangalore and Delhi. He was also weaving shirts with the fabric based on orders from the US. “There are many handweavers like me in Anagaputhur who do not have any infrastructure. I had appealed many times to many authorities but none helped us. I can produce many other innovative eco-friendly hand-woven sarees if I get the help,” Sekar said.
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