A couple of weeks ago I went out gathering cattail leaves from the road ditches to be used next year in the chair seat rush weaving class I’m teaching at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina on June 29-July 5, 2008. See the Events Calendar on WickerWoman.com for a descriptive listing and pictures.
All the cattail leaves are spread out over screen doors and chicken wire on sawhorses in my studio and will have to dry for a total of about 2-4 weeks until they are completely dry. Then I will bundle them up in a manageable size, wrap with newspaper, tie and stack in a corner, butt side down until we need to use them next year for classes.
If you are interested in this gathering and processing procedure and care to do some yourself, read my Tip Sheet article on WickerWoman.com about “Gathering, Processing and Weaving Cattails”
Intrigued by this age-old and nearly lost art of seat weaving? Anxious to learn how to do it yourself? Then visit the John C. Campbell Folk School website and request a catalog. Learn all about the traditional seat weaving technique of hand-twisted cattail or bulrush seat in this rarely taught class and first time ever at the Campbell Folk School.
Enroll in the class right away so it won’t be canceled, see you next year in Brasstown, North Carolina for the Hand-twisted Rush Seatweaving Class! Learn all about the traditional seat weaving technique of hand-twisted cattail and bulrush chair seat weaving!
