Produced primarily for the export market during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these finely woven cases required extraordinary patience and precision, often taking four to six months to complete, with the weaver working several hours each day. The grass was carefully cut, bleached, dried and split into slender strands, each lightly twisted before being worked into the weave. So exacting was the process that women allowed their thumbnails to grow long to assist in separating the fine fibres, with skilled weavers able to draw four usable strands from a single blade of grass. Geometric designs, introduced through a false embroidery technique using silk threads that have retained their brilliant colours over the years, further enrich the delicately worked surface.

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