studio tjeerd veenhoven: palmleather products

‘palmleather’ project by tjeerd veenhoven dried palm leaves rehydrated all photos courtesy of tjeerd veenhoven

‘palmleather’ is an innovation in material research by dutch designer tjeerd veenhoven. a new fabric was born from a mere interest in throw away plates made from dried palm leaves, and from this raw vegetation the veenhoven conducted numerous experiments to create a plant-based substance that mimics cow-leather. the inventor achieved this through soaking the fragile, brittle greenery in water which in turn became flexible and soft. to maintain this useful condition, within 6 months, veenhoven engineered a bio-chemical solution to keep it from dehydrating. this new textile can replace animal-based items, such as bags, shoes and book covers, with much less pollution and, furthermore, is also able to be composted.

bags and book covers can be made from the leather-like material

from this discovery veenhoven met with neelam chhiber, founder of the industree craft foundation, and set up a business model of which artisans are able to produce and use the textile at a local level. as the product is very cheap, plentiful and simple to fabricate, only a year from its inception the first producer-owned processing unit has been set up. the venture makes 6000 ‘palmleather’ leaves a month and is manufacturing throw-away sandals and purses. the commodity is continually being tested for improvements in slicing, cross laminating, gluing and stitching, with more community initiatives budding concurrently.

the plant-based textile can be stitched and sewn like regular leather

the dried palm leaves before processing

palm leaves are an abundant plant

one of the artisans with the product

‘palmleather’ is easy to manipulate and can be made into a sandal quickly

the finished ‘palmleather’ sandals