Plant cordage and fibres
21.08.2023 - 11:57
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
I’m lucky enough to live reasonably close to the Earth Trust, an organisation that aims to offer people life changing experiences that reconnect them to the natural world. They have lots of free and reasonably-priced events for both children and adults, and welcome lots of school and other groups to their HQ alongside Wittenham Clumps (a lovely vantage point from which to get a good view of Didcot!). Over the weekend I went to a workshop they had organised entitled ‘Cordage and Fibres‘, which promised to show interested parties how to make rope and cord from nettle, hemp and flax. It also aimed to explain retting, scutching and heckling.
Nettles, of course, grow everywhere in the UK. They’re one of our most prolific weeds, although they have many practical uses and have tended to prosper wherever humans go (they like the fertile soil in latrine pits…). Not all nettles sting, and both stinging and non-stinging nettles can be used as a source of fibre for cordage (string, essentially) and rope.
The first task of the day was to head outside and harvest some nettles for fibre, wearing nice thick gloves to avoid being stung! At this time of year the nettle patches aren’t looking wonderful, but as long as there’s some greeness left in the middle of the stem, they have some life (and fibre) left in them. We pulled them up, rubbed off any leaves and cut off the roots. When we each had a handful or two, we headed back inside.
The nodes (knobbly joints) on the stems are problematic for fibre extraction, and there are two ways of dealing with them – thumping them with a mallet or (as improbable as it sounds) running them through a mangle. This softens up the node without (you hope) rendering your nettle a mere pile of mush.
Once you
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