Abstract:
The value-added products from cattail plants to make decoration lamps and passing the
know-how skills to the local business, from the initial tests, has found that the production
of cattail paper requires the leaves from the plants as this will give the best possible
results. Boiling 200 grams of the cattail leaves will take 2 hours and in doing this will also
use the mixture of 10-litre of water and 100 grams of Sodium Hydroxide ( aka. Caustic
Soda) which will disintegrate the cattail leaves. Then the disintegrated leaves will be
spun and this will give 300 grams of the tissues of cattail leaves as a result. The tissues
will be spreaded on the top of a screen, which is 52 cm x 72 cm in size, and the final
result of this process will become the cattail paper that is thick and strong enough and
cannot be torn up easily, but importantly it can be formed into sheets easily. To produce
a table lamp, a sheet of cattail paper must be initially dyed in a colour. The used dye is a
mixture of 5-litre of water and 15-gram fabric dying colour. The dyed cattail paper will
then be cut into the shapes of flowers petals and leaves. Then putting all the parts
together with the light bulbs and make some final arrangement to ensure its
attractiveness. Also the production of wall-mounted lamps employs similar process, but
uses wires to hold and support the cords of the light bulbs and this will also make the
arrangement of the bulbs easier. The production of reading lamps is also made possible
by using undyed cattail paper instead of the dyed ones to make the lamp shades. The
conical shape must be employed and then just put this conical-shaped cattail lamp
shade on the top of a 25-watt light bulb. The efficiency test for the cattail paper was
conducted by an observation that involved monitoring its deterioration rate and the way
its colour changed or faded. The finding was that the cattail paper showed no signs of
deterioration and colour fade , even it had been used throughout a 4-week period. In the
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cases of other designs of decoration lamps, they were subjects to the test by leaving
them switched on for 48 hours with 25-watts light bulbs installed on each of them. The
respondents of the survey questionnaire were of male and female respondents with the
age varied from 41-60 years old who received education no higher than Pratomsuksa 6
and have been working as farmers. The attitude of the majority of respondents towards
the concept of value-adding to the cattail plants by using its leaves to produce
decoration lamps was at a high level ( X = 4.20) and when asked about utilizing the
cattail paper to be one of the major components in making the decoration lamps which
will directly support the principles of sufficiency economics, the respondents completely
agreed with and this category achieved the highest consensus level ( X = 4.43). This
project also achieved a high satisfaction level ( X =4.34) and when asked about the
application of the cattail paper to be used as material for beautifully-designed
decoration lamps, it achieved the highest satisfaction level ( X = 4.87). There was a
suggestion indicated that there should be more applications for the uses of cattail paper
in the future such as sunshades or blinds. In terms of promoting and supporting the
cattail paper to become one of the major business for the local community, it received a
positive respond at high level ( X = 4.17) and earned the highest level ( X = 4.47) in the
prospect that the production of decoration lamps made from cattail paper would
generate additional income for the local community.