A lively event unfolded over the Victoria long weekend. based on a hunch- and research that found this link – we explored the fibre potential of invasive scotch broom- and a new dance was invented in the process, the broomella- yes,in due time I hope to get a video up!
scotchbroom after being cooked with soda ash for a few hours
dancing on the broom
musical accompaniment in the rain
picking long fibres from chaff
after washing and leaving to dry, fibres were carded for spinning
Karen spinning fibre- I must work on my drop spindle skills!
an amazingly strong fibre- if time consuming to get… but we did have a hell of a good time and will try this again later in the season after more sun has been absorbed into the scotchbroom
What was the quality of the fiber? Fine, smooth, coarse? Would you make clothing or twine?
HI Laurel, the fiber was strong, not itchy like jute- but still sort of hairy- I think the amount of oragnic matter we still had in it- we are processing down our next batch this week and I will post more photos soon! we are getting more dialed in to cleaning and sorting now- I can see work jackets, market bags or hats being totally possible! stay tuned….
Hi, Sharon, I am part of a flax to linen project. Keen to rett other fibres too. What would you think of retting broom with hydrated lime? Bags of lime are sold for agriculture or building use. Lime is caustic. Ca(OH)2 but not as strong as lye. (But maybe stronger than wood ash). The neat thing about lime is that it turns into limestone (slowly) in contact with air. Also, is there an ideal season for retting Broom?
I would love to know more
Brian White Victoria BC
HI Brian, saw the video on your work with linen- fabulous work you are doing!! we are patching together info from Italian videos we found online with spanish broom- which is harvested during flower- so we did the same with the scotch broom- but as it flowers earlier, I think a bit later in the season ( more sun) would result in a stronger fiber, we hope to try again in August… on round 2, we tried just retting the broom for two weeks with soda ash in the water- stronger then the woodash for sure, this worked, and is great, as no energy is consumed in the process vs, cooking. I am playing around now withthe same technique with blackberry- a future blog post. your group is in Victoria? it feels like we could learn a lot from each other, perhaps field trips are in order! lets stay in touch, Sharon