HOW TO MAKE A CAGE/BASKET DISTAFF

 If you're going to spin flax, you're going to need a Distaff, and you can make your own.

To Make a Cage/Basket Distaff:

Supplies (all available from most hardware stores)

Ø  2 x stair spindles approx. 1m long (mine were 1m & 94cm) 4cm wide on the rectangular ends.

Ø  4 x Shelf angle brackets. I used 26cm x 23cm

Ø  Dowelling – about 10mm x 8cm long

Ø  Screws – about 36mm x 8

Ø  Carpet tacks & hammer/staple gun

Ø  Glue

Ø  Bling

Ø  A drill, a drill bit to fit the screws, and one to fit the dowelling – I used a 10mm Forstner bit

Ø  A finial for the top if you want to go that far – mine is a seed planting tool I had turned, but you could use a draw knob or similar – this gives you somewhere to tie the strick

Ø  Basket-making cane, plastic boning, or something similar, cut to 41cm lengths

Ø  Danish Oil or similar sealer, stain

Ø  Satin Ribbon, about 2.5cm wide

Instructions:

To join the two halves of the distaff: Using the Forstner bit that matches your dowel, drill a hole in the two short ends of the stair spindles. Drill as deep as you can – ideally about 4cm or more. You are going to insert the dowel into the centre of the two spindles to join them together – the deeper the hole, and longer the dowel, the more stable it will be. Longer is better.

To Make the feet: Use the drill bit that matches your screws to drill holes for the feet in the lower spindle. Try to centre the angle bracket in the centre of each side, drill one hole, and put the screw through the predrilled holes in the bracket and into the spindle. Then drill the other hole and insert the screw. Some brackets will have a “key” hole – you can use this for removable feet, but you will have to unscrew it, turn it upside down, and reattach, then line up with a screw drilled into the spindle (argh – too complicated!) Make sure each foot sits right at the bottom of the spindle, otherwise it’s going to wobble. You could put little non-slip ‘feet’ on your feet to help keep it stable.

It should end up looking like this:

Put two coats of Danish Oil or another sealer on the wood, letting it dry.

The Finial: If you’re adding a finial, measure the diameter of the stem, and drill a hole in the short end of the spindle for it to go into.

To make the basket: You will be working on the long end of the spindle (where you will be sticking the finial into). I used plastic boning from my stash (about a million years old). If you have access, use basket-making cane, or anything else that is reasonably springy, eg plastic packing straps, and that won’t break.

Depending on what you’re using, you will either need to drill holes to insert cane, or use carpet tacks or staples to hold the boning. There are a variety of designs: straight spoke, offset by one hole, offset by two holes. Mine is offset by two holes.

You can stain or otherwise colour whatever you are using to make the cage/basket at this point, allowing it to dry before proceeding.

Using staples or carpet tacks, attach the ends of the boning to the top (long end) of the second spindle. The short end has the hole for the dowel. I used both staples and tacks. You will only need 4 lengths of boning for straight spokes, and 6 for the offsets. Attach the boning to the base. For the offset, take the boning straight down, then move it over 1 or 2 places. As you can see by these photos, you can make funky patterns, or just keep it simple.

Distaff - Straight

Distaff Offset

Distaff Offset

Attach the finial to the top – I used wood/PVA glue.

If you want to add bling, do it now. I dived into my stash and found the black and shiny braid. Wrap it just under the finial to hide the staples/tacks, and at the bottom. Add more as desired (there’s no such thing as too much bling).

Hey Presto, you’ve just made a cage distaff! All up, it took me about 2 days to make mine, allowing for drying time, and being interrupted by boring things such as work and feeding people.

You will use the ribbon to wrap the flax onto the distaff.

ADVENTURES IN HARAKEKE : Introduction

Harakeke, Phormium tenax, is a member of the Agave family. The plant grows as a clump of long, straplike leaves, up to two metres long, from which arises a much taller flowering shoot, with dramatic yellow or red flowers. The fibre has been widely used since the arrival of Māori to New Zealand, originally in Māori traditional textiles and also in rope and sail making after the arrival of Europeans until at least WWII. It is an invasive species in some of the Pacific Islands and in Australia. The blades of the plant contain cucurbitacins, which are poisonous to some animals, and some of them are among the bitterest tastes to humans.

Tui on a Harakeke flower stalk

Flax Worker feeding leaves into a stripper

Early 1930's

There are protocol to follow when gathering Harakeke. These are general instructions for a pa harakeke, or garden:

Each harakeke bush is made up of many whanau (family) to form a hapu (family group). So each fan is a whanau and has nga matua (the parents) either side of te rito (the growing shoot).  These three blades are never cut to ensure the ongoing survival and wellbeing of the bush. The remaining leaves of the whanau may be cut for harvest.  It is very important that this is done in the correct manner.

 

v Before harvest karakia is offered to give thanks

v The leaves are cut as per the diagram above. Depending on local practice, all leaves are taken except for the rito and awhi rito with the bush left fully cleaned. Or you may harvest leaving the grandparents (whenu 3 above) as long as each fan is harvested thus. However, if you are not able to use all the available leaves, just take what you can use.

v Traditionally the left over harakeke or toenga (those whenu not suitable for weaving due to disease or deterioration) were left to decompose around the base of the bush.  However this is no longer the practice due to the possible presence of disease and pests in the discarded whenu and so the matter must be composted away from the pa harakeke. With seriously diseased whenu it is now advised that they be burnt to prevent spread although traditionally harakeke was never burnt.

v Fans containing korari (flower stalks) should not be harvested until the flowers have died. We limit the growth of korari in the pa so that the energy of the harakeke bush is not diverted to the growth of the flowers, away from the whenu. Traditionally all korari were removed to prevent the possibility of cross fertilization of the different cultivars.

v Harakeke should be harvested during the day when the blades are dry, not at night or in the rain or frost - as a safety measure but also as doing so will effect the quality of the harakeke making it very brittle.

v Once harvested the harakeke is never walked over, but around. All toenga is removed from the pa and disposed of elsewhere, with the site being left clean of the remains of the harvest. If you are adding this to a greenwaste collection service, check that they will actually take the toenga, as many won't.

v No-one eats, drinks or smokes within the boundaries of the pa harakeke, whether harvesting or visiting.

v Traditionally women with their mate wahine (monthly period) do not harvest as this was a time of rest.

Traditional Flax Harvesting & Weaving Karakia

Te Harakeke, Te Korari

Flax

Nga taonga whakarere iho
the treasure passed down to us

O te Rangi. O te Whenua. O nga Tupuna.
by the sky, the land, the ancestors

Homai he oranga mo matou
gives us health

Tihei mauri ora
for our life force

You may make your own karakia or offering of thanks and gratitude.

HARVESTING:

I harvested my harakeke on a warm day, slightly overcast, with just a light breeze, using the above Karakia before starting. I used a box cutter with a new sharp blade - you generally cannot cut the leaves with scissors or clippers, it's just too tough.

Harakeke before tidying

After harvesting and tidying

The waste pile - this went into a general waste skip, not greenwaste

The harvested leaves

The leaves are then topped, tailed, the centre spine and the coloured edges removed. Fold the leaf in half on itself, cut off the butt end, and using your fingernails or a blade, slice off the spine and edges. Remove the tip. If desired, you can hapine or split the blades into narrow lengths.

RHETTING:

At this point I put the harvested leaves into a large blue plastic rubbish bin in cold water, weighted down with bricks and a terracotta saucer. I fed it some sugar (to feed the bacteria) and aquarium salt to make it slightly briney.

Day 1: First batch of leaves in the bucket

When rhetting European flax, you only do it for a maximum of about 10 days. At that point, the harakeke just laughed at me. I checked it every week after that, and eventually left it in for 5 weeks:

After 5 weeks, there was an interesting mould growth, and it stunk to high heaven!

This is a batch of muka (prepared bast fibre) from a previous experiment, and a couple of leaves, which I boiled to see if it helped. Yes, no, maybe.

The harakeke leaves once they'd been tipped out of the bucket and laid on the grass to dry. Phew. Stinky!

Next time: preparing the muka/bast fibre ....

Please feel free to contact me if you want more information regarding the process so far.

sue.cottle@kinect.co.nz

2021 SO FAR

Over the Christmas break I committed to buying two spinning wheels, an old floor loom and a Rigid Heddle Loom.

The wheels were an Ashford Traditional, dating from the early 1980's, and a Sleeping Beauty Thumbalina, from the mid-1970's:

Sleeping Beauty Thumbalina, 32" Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom, 

Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel and a large box of roving.

The floor loom dates from 1974, made by C Fuller in Mangapai, Northland. It is a LeClerc Fanny-Style 4 Harness Countersunk.

She has been sitting in a barn for the last six years, about 20km from where she was made. I have named her Tirairaka, Tuhoe for Fantail, a native bird.

I took her completely apart, sanded her down, cleaned all the metal work, and reconstructed her. There were only 200 rusty heddles, so I've replaced them with 1000 brand new inserted eye heddles.

I made a warping trapeze so I didn't have to get hubby to help - his first question on helping me warp the Rigid Heddle Loom was "how long will this take?" Well, how long is a piece of string?! There is now a warp on the loom, and once the boat shuttle and bobbins arrive, I can get weaving.

It's a straight-draw sampler, so I can learn how to weave on a floor loom.

The Rigid Heddle Loom has a cotton warp on for teatowels. Not moving very fast, as I'm not terribly interested in it.

I've now spun 4 spools of yarn on the Traditional, getting better each time:

To help me with plying, I decided to make an Andean Plyer, as my arthritis makes it difficult to be wrapping things around my wrist:

Which was wound onto Version 1 of a Turkish Spindle:

Which progressed to Version 2:

To be made into a Diagonal Weave scarf, where you use the warp as the weft. My own handspun is the green and gold, with a blue variegated commercial merino.

I've also restored a early 1980's Ashford Drum Carder.

On the list of things to make are:

• a cage distaff
• a 2-row hackle
• a swing picker
• an e-bobbin winder

Which brings us to ... Adventures with Harakeke

2020 UPDATE

Well, it's been a year and a bit since I've been near my blog - life has been busy, and I haven't felt inclined to write what about what I've been doing. However, now the time has come, the Walrus said ...

Covid hit, and life changed dramatically. My work as a Tourist Shuttle driver dried up, then disappeared, as no tourists were allowed into the country, work repositioning vehicles for a rental car company also dried up, same reason. Production work also disappeared during the Level 4/Level 3 Lockdowns, but came back at Level 2.

Pre lockdown, in January I attended a Maori Woodcarving Workshop and made a paddle (hoe). Good fun.

Bone carving as a hobby didn't last long - too stinky to do inside, and kind of toxic. However I did buy a woodturning lathe, and built a shed to put it in.

Got an awesome tattoo: 

Said goodbye to both my cats at the ripe old age of 16.5

Mr Smudge

Ishtar, Queen of Darkness

Did some cross stitch: 

August 2020 Sunday WIP. Celtic Mandala 600x600cm. Colour #2 317 Blue finished. Taking a break, and moving on to my next cross stitch, Disintegration.

Disintegration

Zen Garden

Shifted some interesting Production vehicles:

Made a yarn bowl: 

Had Mr Edward Bear restored to his former glory - a mid-1960's Steiff bear: 

                                                        

Spent three very long weeks in December in Ruatoki, filming Muru, in the heart of Te Urewera:

And got a beautiful tattoo while I was down there:

Which brings us to 2021, which will be the next post.

Bone Carving Learning Curve

I started getting interested in bone carving around mid-November, after reading Te Hei Tiki by Douglas Austin, and being inspired. I learnt that the Hei Tiki I have, which was given to my grandfather around 1920, is a relatively rare Type II (one hand on hip, one hand across stomach), Shape C (straight lines touching neatly at 2 points only along each side, the head typically being worked in from both sides). Or, of course, it may be a 2 shilling knockoff.

Ordered Degreaser (for bones), Cobalt M42 HSS blanks for carving tools, and Maire blanks for handles (which I don’t think will work, because they’re too short).

Bone Carving by Jim Timings was already in my collection, and ordered Bone Carving: A Skillbase of Techniques and Concepts by Stephen Myhre. Purchased Stephan Gilberg’s Bone Carving Foundation and Masterclass Video series. Watched a whole heap of videos, and read and read and read. Side trips included reading Wood Carving books by Chris Pye, (most already in my collection) and purchasing a couple more on carving Wood Spirits and Green Men. Oooh - shiny - and being inspired by those.

I have two desks in my Studio – one for art, the other, which I made, used for horizontal storage (ie, crap. Unfortunately, this table has no overlaps, so you can’t clamp anything onto it.

I realised I needed a decent workbench – I paint and craft standing up, and always get terrible back pain. Back to Google … came across Patrick Sullivan, a retired physician, now a woodworker. Among his plans was one for a mini-workbench. Oh yeah, that’ll do me!

I already had a suitable table top (can’t remember where it came from), and once I’d printed the plan, got help with the messy math (yes, let’s leave out some crucial dimensions), and bought a few extra tools, I was set.

While hubby said it was too complicated, that was like a red flag to a bull: this woman can do anything she sets her mind to! Of course, inevitably, I needed a wee bit of help, as I only have one pair of slightly dodgy hands, and have problems with heavy stuff.

Of course, to make a bench, I also needed tools … electric tools! Bunnings supplied me with an Ozito Drill Press (OMG – so much fun!!!), and an Ozito Band Saw (again, so much fun). Brand choice came down to cost – they do the job at less than a third of other brands.

I also purchased a Flexi Shaft Grinder hand set and motor (like a Dremel, but cheaper), some saw blades, clamps, woodworkers vice, a dust extractor (the sort nail technicians use) and a drip tray (why a drip tray, I hear you ask? Patience, Young Grasshopper).

The Mini Workbench was finally completed 27 December – work (and pay) kept getting in the way.

In the meantime, I’d ordered some canon bones from the Aussie Butcher, which were duly processed – dogs were internally grateful for the marrow and scrapings, and of course the knobby ends. Next time, I will leave the knobby bits with the butcher – they take up far too much room in the freezer.

I followed a combination of Timings and Myhre’s instructions, with a dash of Bill Bass, Forensic Scientist. I extracted the marrow, then the bones were simmered in clean water for an hour, scraped clean, then re-simmered with Sunlight Dishwash and Eco-Clean Degreaser for another hour. Because I hadn’t realised how far the fat can spread thru the bone, it got a bit yucky. I think they then got simmered for another hour in fresh water.

Now I’ve read some new instructions on one of the Facebook groups I belong to – thanks to Энбулатов Эдуард  aka Edward of Bone Carving – so will try his method next time I need some bone.

November and December passed in a flash, and I felt like I hadn’t achieved much. But of course, I had. My bone blanks were prepared, I’d watched some videos, drawn and cut out the basic Matau/fish hook pattern with the bandsaw, finished the workbench, put some metal pegboard up on the wall, got 2 little drill bit stands (whose holes got re-drilled with the drill press), got a sheet of vinyl for under the table, and generally got everything set up and ready to go. 1kg of tumbled Paua also arrived – it has most of the calcium removed from the outside of the shells, so is pretty much ready to go.

Cutting the bone blanks with first a hand saw, and then later the bandsaw in the garage had created a dreadful smell, and an awful lot of (toxic) bone dust. The smell spread thru the whole house, and was not appreciated.

I knew that cutting the bone with the Flexi Shaft Grinder would also create a lot of dust and smell. Many/most people use some sort of dust extraction – a vacuum cleaner, an extraction fan, a Nail Technician’s fan. Pounamu carvers do their carving under running water, as the crystalline structure creates even more toxic dust. More reading, more videos, more questions (yay Facebook groups and YouTube).

I built a DIY drip system: a 10l water bucket on a tower stand, a guideline to point the airline, a drip tray and small plastic chopping board to work on, and a 20l catchment bucket, all connected by 6mm aquarium airline with valves. I used Selley’s Waterproof Storm Sealant to join it all together.

As you can see, there's a fair amount of room, handy space under the bench, and lots of fresh air. The blue icecream container has paua shell in it.

Today, Saturday, I finally spent some quality time working on my Hei Matau, using my new gear. And nearly falling over backward from the learning curve:

•         The height of the bench is great – I can both stand at it and sit on a stool to work

·        The water drip system needs work.

o   To fill the water bucket I need to stand on a stool and pour the water in – it’s all a bit wobbly. The airline has a definite curl, usually not going the way I want it to, and having only 1 valve means it’s hard to move the bucket. So, a second valve needs to go in above the guideline, so I can turn that one off, remove the airline, take down the bucket, refill it, and return it to its tower.

o   I needed to find a way to control the curl, and have the water drip where I wanted it – used a lovely candlestick to direct the water flow, the bonus being that I can always stick some candles in to make it even nicer!

o   There’s water spraying everywhere when I drill, which probably means there’s also bone ‘dust’ flying. I need to make some sort of enclosure around the drip tray to catch the spray. Perspex and ply perhaps? Needs to be waterproof, so MDF won’t really work, unless I put some sort of plastic covering on it.

o   The airline from the drip tray to catchment bucket won’t drain voluntarily, I need to suck on it – oh yum. Maybe I need a larger diameter tube (which would be a pain, because the stainless steel was hard to drill thru), to move the outlet point, or … something else.

o   ‘The tower’ is rather unstable – what could possibly go wrong with having a 10l bucket full of water above my head?

·        The vice: overall I’m very pleased with it, the bamboo ‘cheeks’ (the wooden liners) and mousepad liner work really well. However it’s probably too close (or too far) from the corner, and because I’m working on such a small scale, hard to get a fret/coping saw in and cut straight. Not sure what will happen here, time and use will tell.

·       Dust Extraction: until the Nail Technician Dust Extractor arrives (thanks to AliExpress), I’m using the spare vacuum cleaner hose when drilling holes or sawing (if I don’t put the bone piece in the vice, it just goes flying in a very exciting fashion). Trying to clamp a curved hose to a flat surface with the clamps I have, in the space beside the vice, is a right royal pain, especially when the clamp falls off, and everything starts heading for my feet – or a dog’s head. Again, time, use, and the arrival of the extractor will tell what happens next.

·        
     Tools & Safety:

o   The ‘cheap’ second-hand wide/long bowed fret saw I bought has a stuffed thread, and the original bolt has been replaced. Basically it won’t grip an unpinned blade. I’ve already broken one blade trying to fit it, and know why there’s so many in a pack. Good news is I have a proper Jewellers saw coming from … somewhere?

o   The Flexi Shaft Grinder started smoking from the handpiece after a bit of continuous use, and got VERY hot – too hot to hold. Oh oh. Have I got a lemon? It’s made in China, so while it was cheap …. I may need to wrap some fabric duct tape around it for insulation.

o   I can’t see me using most of the burrs, drills etc that come with the grinder – just not useful. I used a couple of ‘normal’ drill bits to do the bigger holes, but chipped a flake of bone out of the back of one piece. Gilberg talks about using a ‘dentist’s drill – 2.5mm – which I may see if I can track some down.

o   Can’t decide whether I need to wear earmuffs and safety glasses, as I already wear glasses, and the tools are not very loud – on the other hand, with all that goop flying around … I definitely wear a face mask tho, when I’m drilling something in the vice.

·        I spent most of my first session to-ing and fro-ing from the studio to garage and back again, getting all the stuff I needed, which had either migrated while making the workbench, or normally lived in the garage.

·        I think my next purchase will be a Scroll Saw – a companion to the band saw, but with different abilities, such as being able to take the blade out, insert it thru the piece being worked, and start cutting again. This decision is as a result of a very interesting conversation with Yuri Terenyi on Bone Carving. Of course, others prefer to work by hand.

I had a great time doing this, and am satisfied with what I have produced so far. The two Matau already have quite different personalities.