...artful designs handmade in the heart of Utah's red desert
The Cordage |
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| The cord presented here is handmade in a process as old as opposable thumbs. Remember back to the first time you plucked a blade of grass, a dandilion, a green twig, twisted it, and tied it in knots. That is the premise, and no doubt the ancient source of invention for this method, sometimes referred to as reverse wrap. In southeastern Utah where we produce this cord we regularly find cord of the exact same construction in ruins of the ancient pueblo people nearly a thousand years old. This rope making technique can be applied to a variety of plant and animal fibers including dogbane, milkweed, yucca, cottonwood bark, juniper bark, cliffrose bark, sage bark, hemp, wool, sinew, gut, and many others. | ||
| For our neckalce cords and sewing we primarily use the abundan annuals dogbane (Apocynum spp.)(red) and milkweed (Asclepias spp.)(whitish). We start in the fall by harvesting the dead stalks of the summers growth (new shoots grow annually in the same place). The stalks are laid to dry in our desert environment. Later we scrape a blade over the stalk, removing the outermost part of the bark. Crushing the stalk into four long sections and splitting apart each section we then snap a small | ||
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section of the stalk down its length removing the bark fibers from the stalk. The long sections are then twisted upon themselves (producing the loop in one end) and then rolling and wrapping the fibers around each other. Loose fibers are burnt off and the cord is rubbed on a soft round piece of wood to soften it up. A knot is tied in the loose end and this slips through the loop in the other end to form a clasp. We use no chemicals, dies, machines, nothing but a knife and our fingers. |