Spring Sowing

Last Thursday my AppArts students and I sowed flax seed in the planters of my classroom's outdoor courtyard. After we had dug up the soil, we broadcast the seed like grass seed, raked them in and then the kids walked them in. The soil was so warm that some of the kids removed their shoes. When we came in on Tuesday after a long weekend, to our amazement, the seeds had already peeped through. Hopefully the plants will mature before the weather gets too hot out there.

Is It Spring Yet?

Today is the first day of spring, and boy am I ready for it! I can't wait for the first bloodroot and violets to pop through the ground; it shouldn't be long now. This is a tiny watercolor I did a couple of years ago of bloodroot. The original is about 4x6. These are wonderful little native plants, and scientist are just now beginning to explore all the medicinal possibilities within the chemistry of their roots. The Cherokee used them both medicinally and as extremely lightfast dyes. They yield a rusty red with no mordant necessary and were often used to dye river cane used in their basketry. A friend at NC State is working on researching the use of bloodroot extracts for cancer treatment. Regardless of any uses it may have it is one of the more beautiful spring wildflowers in the Smokies. There are large beds near our home and on sunny spring afternoons you can often find me sitting under the bare trees watching these delicate flower heads nodding in the breeze. My Appalachian Arts students and I will soon begin gathering a few roots from some of the larger beds to dye our wool yarn with. Not only will they learn how to use this dye plant, but also how to identify it, and last but not least, the old Cherokee rule of four.
"Leave the first plant you see because there might be another animal or insect that needs it for food for its young. Leave the second plant you see in case someone is coming along behind you – that person may be in desperate need of that plant, or may have a need greater than your own. Leave the third plant to reproduce additional plants, and the fourth one – you can take that plant for yourself.” Good stewardship is an important lesson to pass on when taking young people out into nature, and is so integral to this area's Cherokee heritage I can't possibly overlook it value to my students.

Original Creating Cordage Post

This is the original creating cordage post that would never cooperate with me:

My Appalachian Arts students and I have been making cordage the last couple of days. We used materials and techniques traditional to the Cherokee Indians of this area. Some of the boys gathered tulip poplar bark from a local log yard and I brought in yucca leaves. Strips of the inner bark were pulled away from the outer bark and the pulp was scraped away (we used a plastic knife) from the yucca. We worked with the yucca raw the first day and then we simmered it for a couple of days and tried it again. The pulp was somewhat easier to scrape away, but I'm not sure it was worth the time spent. We spun the fibers until they started to ply themselves and then continued to apply twist to each end of the resulting cord and plied by hand when a couple of inches had been spun. We spun in one direction and the plied in the other (for you spinners, spin either "s" or "z" and then ply in the opposite direction). The resulting cords were very strong and attractive; the poplar was a nice choclatey brown and the yucca a beautiful soft sage green. The cords were made into bracelets by threading a bead onto them and them putting a knot behind the bead. The beginning loop serves as a buttonhole for the bead. Everyone loved them and the kids made them for friends and teachers. I wound up having to teach my other classes to make them too.

In Like a?

March 1, 2007

Grandpa always watched for weather "signs" and predicted accordingly: Groundhog day (Feb. 14, not the 2nd) predicted the next 6 weeks of winter; today, March 1, predicted the end of the month. I'm not sure whether March has come in like a lion or a lamb today though. It has been raining pretty hard all day and we have had some thunder rumbling overhead, but considering what the weather in the Smokies can be like in March, I'm just not quite ready to pronounce today lion-like.

My Appalachian Arts and Crafts students and I have been busy the last couple of weeks doing some spinning on our CD drop spindles. What fun it is to listen to my big football players and my tough guys ragging the girls about being better spinners, and they really are. Most of the boys in the class have spun several times more yardage at a much more consistent diameter than my best female spinner. We are working on a unit I wrote a grant for: Fiber to Fabric. We will be processing and spinning both wool and flax, dying with native plants, and weaving with the yarns we have produced. We are also going to plant madder and flax seeds in the gardens around the courtyard that is just outside my classroom. Next week we will be making cordage from yucca and the inner bark of tulip poplar in the manner of the ancient Cherokee Indians who lived in this area. This unit will also involve several field trips: to see sheep being shorn at a friend's farm, to the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University, to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, as well as to Oconaluftee Indian Village and Unto These Hills. This is a great opportunity for my kids and so far they are really enjoying it. Cassie Dickson, a friend who works with WCU and is a member of the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild will be working with me on this unit. Cassie is also a spinner (of silk) and a weaver of overshot coverlets. Although it is not Appalachian in origin, Cassie will be bringing her silkworms to class with her later in the semester. We will also be doing some fingerweaving later in the semester.