From Vine to Shine: Journey into Rattan’s Life Cycle

Rattan is a timeless, crowd-pleaser material for many reasons. It’s durable and can withstand heat without cracking. It’s lightweight and flexible, making it easier to work with. It’s also affordable without compromising on quality.

We use ‘Sega’ rattan for our products. The outer skin has been stripped, showing the naturally light inner core. It has the perfect reed diameter consistency and better color absorption. ‘Sega’ means strong and formidable in the native Dayak language of Kalimantan. It is also a popular name given to boys.

However, the process of growing, harvesting, and processing rattan is detrimental to these beloved qualities of our rattan products. So, let’s get to know them.

Harvesting in the rattan forest.

Growth

It takes 10 to 40 years for some rattan trees to be harvest-ready. A good quality rattan requires the plant to climb up tall trees to achieve optimal growth in strength and size.

Harvest

Rattan is harvested by manually cutting out vines from the tree. Once cut, rattan vines can regenerate within 5-7 years making it the second fastest-growing material for furniture production. To ensure timely regeneration, responsible harvesting is done every 2 years. Such human care also prevents dry rattan from weighing down the canopy.

Maintaining rattan trees for production can indirectly protect Indonesia’s rainforest from illegal logging.

Maintaining rattan trees for production can indirectly protect Indonesia's rainforest from illegal logging.

Scrubbing and cleaning.

Process

There is a long process before rattan can be used for weaving. Believe it or not, rattan did not start as the smooth and shiny bars you have as a stool; they had thorns!

The thorns on each vine are cleaned manually by doing scrubbing, then they are washed in the river. Rattan are then seasoned and dried before finally sent to artisans for use. Each of these steps is instrumental to rattan’s durability and flexibility.

So now you know what it takes to produce a high-quality, beloved rattan product by Sansi House. This is not the type of production you can expedite to the seconds. Rattan production is a life-long cycle and its process is to be honored.