A weaving guild with which I am affiliated is working on a guild project to celebrate the “International Year Of Natural Fibers 2009". The idea is that each guild member weave two scarves using natural fibers to create a display which will be hung in a local gallery. Seems quite straight forward, doesn’t it? And it was - until someone asked if rayon qualified as a natural fiber since it is made from wood pulp and thereby opened a rather large can of worms. The question then became what, exactly is a “natural fiber”?

Seeking an answer to this question, a guild member contacted IYNF-2009 Headquarters and posed the question “Is rayon considered an natural fiber?” Mr. Brian Moir, a Senior Economist (Trade), with the IYNF-2009 quickly replied that it was not since a chemical process was required to create rayon. He added the IYNG-2009 description of natural as: “those natural fibres which can be easily transformed into a yarn for textiles”.

So, the key to whether or not a fiber may be classified as “Natural” is the ease with which it may be spun into a yarn that is suitable for creating textiles. Note that before manufactured fibers existed, there was no need to have different classifications for fibers because they were all natural fibers.

Today, we have two main classifications for fibers: Natural and Manufactured. The manufactured fiber classification is sub-divided according to the process used to extract the fibers.

We’re all familiar with the four most common natural fibers:
1. Wool
2. Cotton
3. Silk
4. Flax
All of these meet the criterial of being easy to transform into yarn. There are many other fibers which also meet this criteria: Among the plant fibers, hemp, nettles, and ramie come to mind. Among the animal fibers, there are goat fibers, camelid fibers, bison fibers, and rabbit fibers to name a few.

Manufactured fibers fall into two main categories: Man-Made and Synthetic.

Man-made fibers are classified as “regenerated Cellulose fibers” These fibers are created from natural cellulose material which is then reduced to a viscous liquid solution through chemical action. The viscous solution is then forced through a device called a “spinneret” to form the fiber. This process is called “extrusion”. While these fibers start with a base of a natural material, they certainly do not fit the criterial of being easily transformed into yarn. Rayon is a regenerated cellulose fiber, as is bamboo, soy silk, and ingeo.

Synthetic fibers are those that are created from petroleum and industrial chemicals. Basically the process starts with molecules of petroleum and chemicals which are combined and/or synthesized to make bigger molecules called polymers. Liquid polymers are then forced through spinnerets to form fibers. The most common synthetic fibers are: nylon, acrylic, and polyester.

A note on bamboo: My comments above refer to commercially processed bamboo fibers, which is the form that is currently available on the market. There is another method which parallels that of processing flax except that it involves the use of a natural enzyme bath to prepared the fibers for transforming into yarn. Bamboo fibers prepared by the enzyme bath method may be considered to be a natural fiber as there are no chemical baths or extrusion required. How easy this extraction method may be, I do not know.

Ecological note: We all know that the process of creating synthetic fibers is not eco-friendly. Neither is the process of creating regenerated cellulose fibers. All of the chemicals used in to get these fibers into a spinnabe form must be disposed of somewhere.