Deborah Procter
Deborah is a member of the group who work regularly in Easton Hornstocks National Nature Reserve coppicing the Small-leaved Lime trees. For many of the group, a motivation is taking the felled timber to burn as fuel, but Deborah has been experimenting with putting it to other uses.
I joined the coppicing group a couple of years ago with the ulterior motive of exploring how to use the bark to make lime bast (see Jemma's and Peter's articles all about bast). This came from my interest in weaving baskets using willow and willow bark. That interest quickly expanded to include all the material a harvested tree can give; and I have thoroughly enjoyed finding out what can be done and experimenting along the way.
Lime wood is relatively light in weight and is easy to cut and to carve. There are few knots and no distinctive grain. It is almost white in colour and mellows to a light yellow. There is a long tradition of using lime wood to carve fine, very detailed, decorative panels.
Lime bark is remarkably strong and is relatively thick. The inner layer of the bark is the magical part; it’s where the strength is. The inner bark is made up of many layers and this can be separated by retting to give long strands of raffia like material. In Northern latitudes lime bark has been used to make string, rope, baskets and shoes amongst other things, and finding out about these has been quite inspirational.
I have taken that inspiration from many sources, in particular those craft workers using the bark of silver birch. So, starting with the bark, what have I made?
I’ve experimented using the complete bark to make a couple of things; one of which is a simple container. The aim was to get a sleeve of bark off a small log and plug each end to make a base and a lid for the container. This has to be done when the tree has lots of sap under the bark: spring or early summer. A slice of wood about 4cm thick was cut from a freshly felled log and kept aside. Then at about 14cm from the cut end a knife cut was made through the bark around the circumference of the branch. To get the bark of the log the bark was bashed enough to loosen it but not so hard it got damaged. With a bit of wrestling the tube of bark came off in one piece. The slice of wood kept by at the start was used to plug one end of the tube, it needed a bit of the bark removed and then it fitted snugly. You could stop there and have a container that would carry water albeit with a bit of leakage or to store things in. I decided to make a lid by using another slice of from the log.
A less successful make was to attempt a copy of a canoe bailer (traditionally made in cedar bark by First Nation North Americans) using a sheet of bark. The idea is that the flexible inner bark is exposed at both ends, folded like a fan and tied to a handle stick whilst slightly curving the central square of bark. I think I need to try with a bigger bit of bark as this attempt is a bit rough and ready.
Switching to using just the inner bark I cut a series of strips and used them to weave a simple small basket. The thing that continues to surprise me with this basket is how flexible the whole thing has remained. It can be squished in a way that something like willow bark cannot.
Going down to a more refined level and working with the fine ribbons of lime bast, I’ve so far made lengths of string and rope, both two and three ply. I haven’t made anything with these yet, mainly because I’ve only made short lengths! I also had a go at knitting the lime bast just twisting the fibres a bit as I worked rather than making string first and then knitting. I think it worked quite well but again, I only did a small piece so have not put it to any practical use.
Another experiment was to make a fabric by cutting the bast into ribbons and weaving them into a small cloth. I need to think a bit more about how to finish the edges but, I did end up with a fine cloth that can be rolled up so I’m counting that as a success!
When retting lime you end up with a lot of outer bark. I used some of this to make an ornamental star following a design based on a windmill knot. I shall experiment a bit more with this ‘waste’ material.
The next thing I’d like to try is using the inner bark to weave a chair seat but that will have to wait until the next harvest to get the right material.
Having talked about the bark; what about the wood? Here the possibilities are many and most are beyond my skill levels.
I have though made a couple of "shrink pots". These are made using greenwood ie fresh, before it’s had a chance to dry out. I hollowed out a log of wood as tall and as wide as I wanted the pot to be, making a tube with the walls about 1cm thick. I then cut groove inside the tube close to one end. To make the base I cut a disc from a thin plank of dry lime wood, made so it could be push fitted into the groove with a click. As the green wood dries out it shrinks and grips the base tight: hence the name ‘shrink pot’. The ones I made have no lid and I slightly burned the outside of the pot to give it a glossy black finish.
The only other thing I have made from the wood is this small scoop for my tea caddy.
This is as far as I have got so far in my journey with harvested lime trees and I look forward to learning more.
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