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)
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2 x stair spindles approx. 1m long (mine were 1m
& 94cm) 4cm wide on the rectangular ends.
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4 x Shelf angle brackets. I used 26cm x 23cm
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Dowelling – about 10mm x 8cm long
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Screws – about 36mm x 8
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Carpet tacks & hammer/staple gun
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Glue
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Bling
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A drill, a drill bit to fit the screws, and one
to fit the dowelling – I used a 10mm Forstner bit
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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
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Basket-making cane, plastic boning, or something
similar, cut to 41cm lengths
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Danish Oil or similar sealer, stain
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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.
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.
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