Julie Wood

Will do, thanks!

My basket from coralberry bush. I don’t have “in progress” shots because I was focused on staying in the moment and off my phone as I wove, and only afterwards realized it might qualify for a BB. I sat in the forest to make it, cutting each piece as needed. If I need to do another with pix of precut materials and in progress shots I will.

I need some creative suggestions, please. I need to cut down several Osage Orange saplings, with wood ranging from pencil-thick to a couple inches in diameter and thorns about the length of my fingernail. The wood is hard and strong, and historically used for making bows, hence the French name bois d’Arc (bow-wood) aka bodark. I could strip the thorns off and make all sorts of things, but I have plenty of plain boring sticks already. What can I weave, carve, construct, or create that uses or highlights their beautiful stabbiness?

Throwing this idea out in hopes it strikes a chord with someone who can run with it. Hay bale netting made from edible mycelium.

I’m new to ranching and recently learned that most hay bales are wrapped in plastic netting. Strands end up all over the fields and can kill livestock if eaten. One of my mentors said “someone really needs to make this stuff edible.”  I started digging through the google and only found a few prospects. They are all within the last few years and none appear to have gone into commercial production yet. The prototypes use flax, hemp, and bioplastic.

I’ve enjoyed reading about the mycelium insulation and building projects in these forums and branched out from there into looking at the companies using fungi to grow customized shapes for product packaging. It seems like it has a lot of potential as an environmentally safe alternative netting.

It would need to be flexible enough to wrap a bale, sturdy enough to hold up in transit, and safe for livestock to eat.

I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts.

Thank you Deane and Anne! And I appreciate the reminder, Anne, to keep my mind open to what constitutes useful.

I was told that the property I’ll be moving onto next month was covered with “stinging nettle” and got really excited (which was not the reaction the person telling me expected!) I’ve read here about it as a superfood, fertilizer, arthritis treatment, fiber arts source… I couldn’t wait to start harvesting.

Visited in person and…. Nope. It’s not stinging nettle, Urtica diocia the amazing. It’s two kinds of horsenettle, Solanum dimidiatum and Solanum carolinense.  Which is apparently quite poisonous and doesn’t make great fibers or fertilizer tea.

Anyone know of ANY redeeming qualities? Does it at least help with arthritis? Does it stop stinging once it wilts like true nettle does?

Such a bummer to find out my treasure trove is in fact fool’s gold!

Thank you all!

Thank you Christopher! Tangent - what detergent do you like? I’m always looking for better.

Thank you Judith!

How do y’all clean your cheesecloth, especially when making soft cheeses or yogurt? It’s hard for me to get all the residue off by hand but I’m worried if I put it in the dishwasher or washing machine future cheeses will taste soapy.