Week 2: Cordage

So, cordage. 

After some careful deliberation on possible natural fiber sources in my forest, I had determined that the only way I was going to complete this assignment was to strip the cambium from between the outer bark and inner wood of a pine tree. In the snow. In the cold. Possibly from a wet tree, because it has been pretty much straight snow for the past month followed by heavy rains for the past week here in West Virginia. (We have very clearly entered mud season, right before fool's spring, here in the Appalachians.) 

I was not really looking forward to that. 

The last time I had made cordage was over 20 years ago in college, during an indigenous materials course for my Native American studies minor. Everyone had different projects, and I was hoping a classmate with theirs. I remember they soaked their fibers too much, and they ended up with rather muddy looking jeans since they were rolling against their knee in front of a coffee shop on campus. This was what I was expecting, only alone in the woods in the snow.

But. I was literally on my way to a pine tree that seemed promising when I passed by our herb beds, and realized that I could see the remnants of our daylilies now that the snow had melted. And I realized that the foliage left behind look pretty fibrous. So I gathered a big handful and decided to give it a go.

Photo: daylily foliage in the winter garden. (13 February 2021)

Photo: gathering daylily foliage from the garden. (February 13)

I brought the dried leaf stalks into my house, trimmed a few down and bundled them together, and lo and behold: absolutely and unexpectedly amazing material for cordage!

Photo: a strong yet highly flexible piece of cordage. (13 February 2021)

Photo: my two attempts at different methods of making cordage with my personal assistant, Gremlin. (13 February 2021)

I tried two methods of making cordage that I saw in some of our class videos and in other YouTube research, and quickly realized that the "turn the farthest strand to the left, then twist both to the right" method produce the strongest and most firmly woven bit of cordage for me. I was further supplies by how durable and flexible the cordage was, as I was able to loop and tie a rope around one of my helper Gremlin's catnip mice. 

It ended up being much easier than I realized, and was actually rather fun. 😁