Flax progress
This week I’m back at Kestle Barton, on the Lizard in Cornwall. I’m here for the next stage of the flax project. It is wonderful to be back, having now spent time here in all seasons this year. On each residency visit it takes time to sink into the place – walking the same paths, hearing the birds (which I’m acutely aware of here with the absence of traffic noise), noticing the plants and their changes as the seasons shift. The plants seem tired, leaves fading and drying as autumn slips on. Their energy is packed into the seeds and fruits that now dominate. I’ve gathered various things to provide colour for my Kestle Barton Colour Chart, which I’ve added to on each visit. This time there are berries to add their vibrant, but less stable, hues to the mix.
I wrote in May and July about the flax we are growing here this year. Following the harvest during my last visit, the flax was laid out on the grass around the circle where it had grown. There was a lot of rain at that time, but also summer warmth, so the retting was expected to happen fairly quickly. I left the care of the flax in the capable hands of the gardening staff here at Kestle Barton and the wonder of a WhatsApp group meant that in my absence we could be in regular contact about how it was getting on, and make decisions accordingly. It was turned a week after harvest, the progress of the retting clearly visible in the change in colour of the stems that had been underneath in that first week - the right hand side in the image above. Then another week later it was tested by wiggling a few stems between the fingers to see if the core would break, releasing the fibres. It was nearly there, so it was turned again and spread out a little more to let the slightly greener stems ripen further. Within the next week the flax was gathered up and taken into the pavilion in the orchard to dry out. Once in and under cover the bundles were turned weekly to ensure air flow and even drying.
So, when I arrived back here last weekend the wooden platform in the pavilion was a sea of dried flax and quite a daunting amount of it! It was looking good though. The wiggle test told me that it has retted well. This means that the fibre comes away from the core easily but that those fibres also stay intact. It would be very easy to over-ret the fibre, which would mean that the fibres are weakened or break. Retting is a bit of a dark art as there is no one set time it takes – it all depends on the temperature and dampness of the conditions. A couple of weeks in warm and wet Cornwall is about what I expected we’d need, so it’s reassuring to find it has worked.
A couple of days ago I set up my new flax processing equipment, which I’ve been able to purchase with funding from the Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers. 8 years ago, I learnt how to process flax from Susie Gillespie and we used a similar breaker to this one. Since then, for processing my allotment grown flax, I’ve always improvised with different combinations of bits of wood and garden furniture. It’s done the job, but perhaps not as efficiently as it might have been with a better set-up. Getting the breaker from Flaxland, which also has a series of hackling combs set in the top, means I can now do the processing much more efficiently. It’s still a slow activity, taking the dried stiff stems through to beautiful soft fibres, but having better equipment is going to make it a whole lot easier.
This crop of flax is not going to win any awards for the longest fibre. The tricky growing conditions meant that it didn’t reach its full potential height and many of the stems are slim. But that handful of soft, strong fibre is still something to behold. Taking a plant from seed, through growth and then on to this state where it takes on a new life and potential, is really quite magical.
So, the next few days will be spent down in the orchard mostly processing flax. There is a lot to get through, but we’ll just do what we can. More can be processed through the winter, as is traditionally when it would be done. Thankfully the weather is dry this week and it is lovely to be working outside. I will be using the fibre to make work which will be exhibited in the gallery here next summer. I will use plenty of the processed fibre, but I also have plans for the stems at different stages of their processing journey. I kept some of the stems back from the retting, which have just been dried and still have their seed heads on. These will be used in my work too. I’m looking forward to getting in the studio and starting to explore this beautiful fibre.
And in other news, I have a new looking website. After a summer of re-working and tweaking, it’s now at a stage where I can invite you to have a look. The rest of my workshops for this year are now listed and linked from there, as well as the other archive of projects, interviews etc.