Attended a terrific workshop yesterday at Northey Street City Farm teaching some fundamentals of weaving. Teacher was Anaheki.
Marie was also there from Ferny Grove.
We walked around first of all identifying materials that could be harvested to use for weaving. They are all growing in my own garden in The Grove in abundance!
Some possible sources of fibre for weaving are:
[ul]Palms including the sheaths
Pandanus
Cottontree bark
Lomandra
Dianella
Native cordelyne
Bamboo
Banana
Yucca
Mulberry bark
Coconut
Palm and golden cane inflorescences (flower stalks)[/ul]
Some materials need cutting down the centre (palm fronds) and some soften for use by stroking them across a heat source such as a fire briefly. Typically pick fresh. Soak hard sheaths to soften for use as a leather which hardens once dry.
We used banana palms. What a material.
We started with a whole freshly cut down banana palm trunk. This was sawn through neatly at each end. We unwrapped the layers that made up the trunk (like an onion) carefully one at a time.
Then about 1cm is cut off each side and saved to make rope. The main long piece is cut with a knife lengthwise in half so you have two very long pieces. Then each of these are cut nearly into 4 long strips but just joined for the last 3 inches. The thick ones can then be filleted with the knife between each side.
They are then hung up to dry for 4-5 days hanging full length.
We then went back and worked with some pre-prepared dried fibre. It dries right up into a narrow brown strip very soft. We soaked this briefly in water before use. It is a terrific material to work with. Banana fibre seemed very clean. The whole time we were working there never seemed to be a need to wash our hands. But apparently it can mark your clothes.
We also cut knobbly fronds off palm inflorescences and combined these with the banana fibre to weave a container.
There is a weaving and papermaking craft centre in Milton/Auchenflower called Fibrecraft House. Wish it wasn’t so far away.