Monday 7 July 2014

how long is a piece of string?

I finally got the chance to have a nettle string making class with our resident Celtic wildman last week. We have a new experimental archaeology project underway at work - Bryn Eryr, a reconstruction of an iron age roundhouse farmstead from Anglesey in North Wales. As well as the main building operation, there is a lot of peripheral activity going on across other departments. The farmers are growing a field of spelt with the intention that the straw will be used to thatch the roof. The blacksmith has been making replica tools to create the wooden objects that will populate the buildings. The Celtic guy is charged with producing 4km of nettle string to make rope for lashing the roof structure - so he is busily teaching the technique to everyone who is willing (and a few who said yes without listening to the question properly).


The operation falls into two stages - harvesting and preparing the fibres, then allowing them to dry and shrink overnight before twisting them up to make string. I have pictures of the first stage - but not enough hands to take process pics of the making phase. Gloves are advised for cutting the nettles and stripping the leaves off, but a good rub with a gloved hand is enough to remove the stings and make them friendly to handle. The stems are then lightly crushed and peeled to get the outer fibres. It reminded me of peeling the stringy bits off celery.


Twisting the fibres together to make string requires a little technique and creative skill. But not in a 'go away I'm writing War and Peace' kind of way - more the 'sitting round the fire having a gossip while creating with your hands' thing. A bit of patience and some acquired muscle memory will have you doing it while hardly even looking, just like your Nana knitting and watching the wrestling at the same time.

There's an excellent tutorial here from the lovely Ray Mears*

With my little pile of nettles I made about 10 metres of 2 ply string, which I then twisted up on itself twice more to make about a metre of 8 ply cord. (That's it in the picture at the top of this post). It's incredibly strong - I was going to try and take a picture to demonstrate its weight bearing capacity but couldn't think how. Suffice to say I could easily restrain someone against their will with it should I decide to kidnap them - don't have nightmares folks!

Not sure I'll be going into the string making business any time soon, (or the kidnapping business for the record). But it's a fantastically satisfying feeling to have the skill to whip up something so useful with your bare (okay gloved) hands.


* (who could canoe me up the fjords any day - Grylls might have the poster boy looks, but Ray would always cook you a much nicer tea).

13 comments:

  1. Sounds like you have the best job in the world Bernice!

    (I was going to suggest something naughty you and Mr Up The Garden Path could get up to with that nettle string, but I thought I'd better not)

    x

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    1. You guys get the bloggable side of my job - needless to say there's unbloggable stuff too!

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  2. Oh that Kylie, lowering the tone...
    You made string. Out of stinging nettles. I am in awe! Now go and tie someone up with it, just because you can! xxx

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  3. What an amazing craft to learn! So super cool! To see it go from a simple plant to actually strong looking rope is I imagine quite satisfying!!! Have an outstanding week friend! Nicole xo

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  4. Wow, that is quite a feat to have made all that!! xx

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  5. That is excellent. I've never considered making my own string, but now I think I need to look into it! Cheers.

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    1. I think you'd really like it Bek, I realise it's not for everyone - but you seem like a woman after my own heart. Just need to find yourself a nice tall nettle patch next summer x

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    2. For sure! I have two nettle plants that have chanced to come up in an unused area of my "orchard", so I am letting them go to seed in the hope that I will have my own nettle forest come summer! Nettle rope here I come.

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  6. Volunteering for experimental archaeology projects can come out much worse than making string from nettles *pauses for long-ago flint knapping memory of bashed fingers*. The string is quite impressive, as I'm sure the re-created settlement will be.

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    1. Haven't ever had occasion to try flint knapping, but I can tell you with absolute authority that scything sucks!

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  7. Pretty cool - you English and your nettle. Tea, string, what else do you do with it? :)

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  8. My husbands got some nettle growing in the garden, he's thinking tea! I'm thinking rope! Would love to give it a go :)
    Thanks for popping by!

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    1. Tea before it flowers - rope once it's full height and flowering. The internal structures in the plant go a bit crystalline once it's flowering which can give you kidney stones if you ingest it. Eat em young basically!

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