I just pulled up a huge pile of what I think are goldenrod stalks. They were grown in 2022, and are still hard & seemingly durable. They are about 7 to 8 feet tall and taper a bit from base to tip. I am considering weaving baskets with them with a preference toward a vegetable harvest basket & Adirondack style pack basket. I know the pack baskets are traditionally made from pounded ash strips, but I think I can try with these stalks and still have a relatively light basket, yet durable enough to carry weight. Do any of you have experience weaving with hollow-cored stalks or things like this? Am I wasting my time?
My idea is to cut the root end off, then scrape the stalks clean, and store indoors until the pile is processed. I may have to soak them to ensure they don't crack, but I'm not sure yet until I play around with them.
Do you have enough to do a little sample, maybe four or six stalks? See if they get bendy when soaked and if they hold the shape when dry and if they are brittle when dry? Make a tiny basket or two and then abuse it worse than the final basket would get?
Karl said, "and have any of you considered using golden rod? it's a little more like flax.
Henry Ford sponsored a great deal of research into using Goldenrod for fiber and for latex production. his research was shut down after the discovery/invention of Polyurethane rubbers during WWII.
Goldenrod grows prolifically in abandoned fields in NY state... just saying maybe there is a great opportunity there.
Joylynn said, " I grow late flowering boneset, for winter colds. I have a forest of giant ragweed, to remember what winter colds are like. Actually, for biomass. Goldenrod. Really, what I do is not weed these volunteer plants. Mare's tail is prolific. No one is going to stop me from pulling up Kudzu from along the highways. Wild lettuce stalks? We eat the leaves before it bolts, letting it reseed as it will. A smallish quantity of stalks for the purpose though. The others are the plants with a population I think would make a few yards, as opposed to inches of cloth.
Hello! Have you had the time to make a basket out of goldenrod yet? I'm so curious how it went in that case.
I have so many growing here in the garden as weed and trying to find something to make from the stems. fibers do not seem to work, since they are hollow? So weaving basket sounds exciting.
I have no idea on goldenrod stalks, but I dry various things that I hope to use, and then see if they have the needed flexibility and strength after they're soaked/rehydrated.
Some plants I use fresh, but the shrinkage can loosen the baskets, so I am moving towards dry materials.
I live near the ocean, where some people use kelp.
Some things work and some don't, and it's easy enough to let them dry and try them out. I have had good success with morning glory vines and bermuda grass and iris leaves. I have failed with sweet flag and some things I can't remember. And some things you can make twine with, and then weave with the twine, though they're not strong enough by the single strand.
Of course partly it depends on what your basket is intended for, and so how strong it has to be, and your weaving techniqes. Maybe you'll invent something, or revive something forgotten.
Post by:autobot
yeah, but ... what would PIE do? Especially concerning this tiny ad:
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