During her time in Curaçao, designer and textile specialist Lena Winterink worked with Farm to Crafts to explore the potential of banana fiber as a meaningful design material. Her work focused on how undervalued, locally available materials can shift from being seen as waste to something people feel connected to and proud of.

In Curaçao, craft and agriculture are closely linked to history. Practices such as weaving and working with natural fibers were once part of everyday life, but many of these traditions have faded. Colonial exploitation and the legacy of slavery still influence how agriculture and manual labor are perceived today. During her stay, through conversations with the Farm to Crafts team, visits to the Tula Museum, and public discussions, Lena noticed a recurring search for pride: how to honor the past without being held back by it, and how to build something valuable in the present.

Rather than trying to revive historical crafts, Lena chose to focus on what exists today. Working with banana fiber highlights the potential of local resources that are already there but often overlooked.

Although Lena has long experience with textiles such as flax and wool in the Netherlands, this was the first time she started a project directly from raw fiber herself. What surprised her most was both the strength of banana fiber and the amount of time it takes to process. Fibers coming straight out of the machine are sticky and rough, and brushing and cleaning them is slow, hands-on work. Together with the team, Lena spent much of the first week preparing fibers by hand.

From these experiences, Lena developed three design directions. The first explores using existing banana fiber samples as light objects. By placing samples in a simple metal lamp frame, light reveals their texture and translucency, turning earlier experiments into functional objects.

The second direction focuses on the natural color variations in banana fiber. Instead of dyeing, Lena worked with these differences by developing a simple system of small fiber brushes. These can be made during maker days and later combined into larger pieces such as rugs or wall objects, using as few production steps as possible.

The third direction connects banana fiber to living craft on the island. Together with Felix Etienne, a local chair caning specialist, Lena tested banana fiber within traditional chair weaving techniques. The experiment showed that the fiber works well in this context and could give both the material and the craft a new future.

Together, these directions form a foundation for continued exploration, positioning banana fiber as a material that can support local craftmanship and a new functional design language.