Horn of plenty



Siberian iris leaves bundled for storage

 Weaving in the studio over the Thanksgiving long weekend, I was reflecting on my changed (upgraded?) perspective on what it means to harvest for the future.

In the studio, it has been a glut of harvesting over the past few months - gathering supplies for use over the winter, spring and early summer when our weaving materials of choice are scarce or not ready for collection. The only material available year round seems to be English Ivy but all the others?  Blackberry bark - the harvest window is late July/early Aug (from the time the flowers begin attracting bees to shortly after the first green-hard berries form).  Iris leaves - best harvested in the fall.  Willow and hazel - late winter/early spring. . . . and so on. . . .
A couple of weeks ago, while harvesting Siberian Iris leaves at the Means of Production garden, I asked myself (when the sun was too hot and my back tired)... "Do we have enough yet?"  In the midst of my grumbling I began to realize that what seems like a huge bounty now (I estimated close to 3/4 m3 of leaves were harvested that afternoon) may in fact still leave us short come late spring....


 So a 'Horn of Plenty' to celebrate the bounty of the harvest and (hopefully) many months of weaving to coming before we grab our garden cutters and head back into the garden once again for next years harvest!






Materials used:
English Ivy - used for the spokes and some twining.
Siberian Iris leaves - twining
Day lily leaves - twining
Day lily flower stalks

Iris & Ivy

A pile of carded indigo-dyed fleece (I'll need a basket for that!) and the arrival of bunches of Water Lily stems to the studio were the main inspirations for this piece. 

Using the newly arrived Water Lily stems, I twisted up a test piece of cordage.  It shrunk quite a bit once dried but was otherwise strong and held it's shape quite nicely in an interesting open spring-like coil. The idea of an open wirey twined basket started to take shape... 

I also wanted to see how English Ivy would behave as the warp when it wasn't held firmly in place by an equally 'strong willed' material.  Using Flag Iris leaves as the main twining material allowed me to gently direct the 'spokes' in this free formed basket with a band of Water Lily cordage added for interest.




Flag Iris and Water Lily stems woven over English Ivy

Notes on working with Water Lily stems:

I found that the Water Lily stems were easiest to work with when soaked briefly in water (until the stems are leathery soft or 'just' flexible) and then wrapped in a wet towel to mellow. By doing this the stems were pliable enough to twist into cordage and, since they hadn't soaked up a great deal of water, didn't shrink too much on drying.

The fully soaked stems, on the other hand, rehydrated back to their original thick and spongy (and let's not forget - slimy) shape . . . not something I would recommend for weaving with unless you want to try your hand at making cordage or weaving with long rubbery earthworms! (Although you may want to experiment yourself just for the sheer novelty of the experience!)

The Sampler Basket

This twined basket was a spontaneous creation woven during the Richmond Maritime Festival as a demonstration piece. 

I started with English Ivy that I had harvested on my way to the festival that morning.  The Ivy was left unsplit with the bark on, only the rootlets and leaves where removed. 

Yellow Flag Iris leaves (previously dried and soaked), Blackberry bark, a strip of tree bark found washed up on the beach and Cottonwood Tree Bark (also found washed up on the beach) were all incorporated into the basket in order to demonstrate the variety of materials that I had on hand that day.  The banding pattern was separated by sections of English Ivy that had been previously dried and then resoaked prior to use.