Hello, my name is animal camp. Today I will be conducting a workshop on fiber plants and cordage making. This is part one of a two-part workshop focused on cordage and net making more broadly. First, a little bit about myself, as they said, my name is animal camp. I am a current graduate student in the winch teri University of Delaware program in our conservation. I am a major and textile conservation with a minor in organic objects. So that allows me to work not only on textile objects such as carpets and costume as what, but also things like feathers for and Horn and bone materials. I graduated from the University of Delaware with my undergraduate degrees in art conservation and Anthropology. In 2019. As a senior IUD, I collaborated with on op, a tribe of Delaware to study Mid-Atlantic historic fishing nets. So on the left, this is an image of me studying and that at the American Museum of Natural History. And on the right is an image of a monopoly delegation that was organized to visit the National Museum of the American Indian cultural resources under. During this visit we were able to see nuts and that making materials that were used by law, not by ancestors, as well as native tribes from the surrounding region. This yearlong project has given me a great insight onto cordage making and not making of the region. And today I'll be focusing on cordage machine specifically. First, what is cordage? If you Google cordage, it will likely tell you that it's rope used for ship breaking. However, I can, I go I work with a much broader definition of rope or line consisting of two or more twisted strands. So this could encompass your rope for ship or again, like that shown on the top. Or it could also include twine, amused to tie a package so it can be very broad. Traditionally, cordage is made from natural fibers and IOT and flat soon. But today it is made primarily of synthetic materials. So your nylon rope that you might use on your boat today. I would also consider reportage, but today I will be focusing on natural materials. Since pre-history, cordage has been used for a variety of objects. This includes utilitarian objects, such as ladders, like that shown on the right, or foot bridges. It's also used in clothing, such as the sandal on the left and even weapons. This is Ebola. And you can see that the three strands holding these weapon like balls together, army and of a natural fiber cordage that YOU objects on the left are prehistoric objects. And they survive in the archaeological record because they were stored or found in very dry environments. Unfortunately, that is not the case for much of historic and prehistoric cordage examples. And that's because cordage, being made for a natural fiber is composed of cellulose. Cellulose is the primary polymer that also creates paper. Cellulose is shown here on the left, and it consists of multiple cellulose monomers connected Quito large cellulose polymeric network. As these, as cellulose degrades, the network itself starts to break up. And not as white paper objects, such as newspaper over time will Yellow and brittle. In terms of cordage, This means that in, in an environment with excess moisture or excess heat or light cellulose will degrade, the cordage will degrade. And so in many archaeological examples are many archaeological environments. Cordage does not survive. It is also common target of biological decay, such as mold. So when we're thinking of cordage examples on the mid-Atlantic coast, in the case of fishing nets, these examples do not commonly survive. As you can imagine, fishing nets are used in or on or near the water. So they are commonly going to degrade either because they're wet or because they've been exposed to bacteria in the water or from fish. So when studying historic fishing nets, very few examples are available for study. The images on the left specifically are examples that were collected. The last known law, not a knot maker, Mr. Carney, In the 19 hundreds, they were collected by an anthropologist from the University of Pennsylvania Museum, CA West logger. And he illustrated them in his book DHA lowers, forgotten folk as shown here. And it's believed that they were given to the high collection, which was the founding collection for the National Museum of the American Indian. Unfortunately, these objects cannot be found. And very few fishing nets from this time and region can be found at all. Many fishermen like Clem Carney did attempt to preserve their fishing nets during their lifetime by coding them in a variety of materials. But unfortunately, over time, those materials have also lead to degradation of the fishy knots themselves. Today, unfortunately, we're not talking about fishing nets. That will be in the next lecture. But today we're talking about the cordage that fishing nets are made from. Cordage comes, as I said, from fiber or is mean of fibers. And fibers can come from hundreds of plants throughout the world. They can come from coconuts, pineapples, hemp, et cetera. But what's listed here are common fiber plans that you might be familiar with or that are found in the mid-Atlantic region. So the first two, slippery ALM and basswood are trees. The fiber that comes from these trees is from the interior bark. And what you can see here is a man stripping the interior bark from slippery elm. As mentioned in the ethno botany lecture, slippery elm also has medicinal purposes. Cotton, which everyone is probably familiar with, is a fiber plants. And the fibers come from the hairs that come from the cotton balls. The rest of the plans listed here are bast fiber plants. And Bast fibers are fibers that come from the interior of the stock of the plant. So they're not coming from the leaves, they are coming from that central stem. And examples of bass fibers include jute and hemp, as well as dog being milkweed and stinging nettle. Dog Bain milkweed and stinging nettle are three examples of vast fiber plans that were used by al an op, a fisherman and other Nita and, and then took fishermen to create cordage for fishing nets. So let's dive into those three a little bit more. First is dog being. I have listed the scientific name here. And I've also include an image of a dog being coordinate example from, and that at the National Museum of the American Indian. In the middle is an image of a zoomed in picture of dog Bain fibers. And you can see they have a slate luster and they have a reddish brown color. On the right is the dog being plant itself? This is a perennial plant and the fiber comes from the plant stock, which you can see also has a reddish tinge. Here's a video of job being, of the jog being plant, seeking an idea of what it looks like in the wild. The next plant is milkweed. And milkweed has also a perennial plant with the fiber coming from the plant stock. The resulting fiber, which gives the, the plant its name, has a very milk, milky and find color. It is pale and a very soft fiber. And this plant is also commonly, commonly attracts monarch butterflies, as shown here. So you might have seen monarch butterflies on the plant and noticed the butterfly, but not the plant itself. Here's a video of milkweed to demonstrate what that looks like in the wild. And then finally, stinging nettle. Stinging nettle fibers look very, very similar to milkweed fibers and on museum objects, they can be impossible to differentiate without taking samples from the object itself, which can be controversial. This is also a perennial plant. On the fiber comes from the plant stock. As I said, the fiber is tail like milkweed, and it has a very soft find fiber. This plant is also used for medicinal purposes. It can be distinguished by the fine thorns that cover the central stock. They give it the name stinging nettle. Here is a video of stinging nettle to show you what it looks like in the wild. And of course, it is characterized by those fine thorns. Now that you've seen what these plants look like in the wild, it's your turn to go see if you can find them. Referenced the videos to see what they look like. And hopefully things like monarch butterflies, the thorns, that red stock will help you to find them. However, you don't have to use these three plants to make cordage. You can try using bark or even a long grass if you can create a long fiber. And then we can create cordage out of it. Again, be careful of not all because of the thorns, but just be safe. Have fun and watch out for mosquitoes. After you find your plants, I recommend that you allow them to dry for a few days, put them in the sun. This will allow them to yet crisp, remove some of the moisture and it'll be easier to process them. Once you have done that, come back. And there are a series of three videos about making cordage using milkweed. And that'll specifically, but again, any fiber can be used for this. Well, you already these it can be tried. I will make no promises, but I recommend trying it, coming back and seeing what coordinates you can make. The next workshop will then focus on tying knots with the cordage you've made and eventually making fishing nets. Thank you.

Cordage

From Jonathan Cox July 22, 2020

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Cordage and Net-making
By Annabelle R.F. Camp

President, WUDPAC Class of 2022, NEH Fellow

Department Name: Art & Design
Department Division: Product
Date Established: July 22, 2020

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