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Are you a fish lover?
To start our new series of local fish recipes we have started with a
simple Bass Dish.
If you love a bit of fish then check
the articles page
Make A Grain Mother
Make your own Grain Mother or Corn Dolly. Go for a walk and see what you can find - stalks of wheat, oats, barley, rye often left growing on the edges of fields after harvesting, failing that any grasses and/or reeds you can find.
Let your creativity out - if you feel confident, weave your Grain Mother into being, but equally you can just lace and tie her into being with Lammas coloured ribbons. As you do so, give thanks for the gifts of Harvest. Place your Grain Mother on your altar or at the centre of celebrations. At Samhain, return the grain stalks to the earth, they contain the seeds of future harvest...
How to make a Corn Dolly
The best part of the stem is the top length from the ear (the seed head) down to where the last leaf leaves the stem. Leaving the ear intact, strip off the dead leaves and sort the stems according to size: thick, medium, and fine.
Dry straw must be soaked flat in cold water for about 15 minutes and then stood upright to drain before plaiting.
Stand the straws on their ends so the ends match up. Fasten them about two inches (five cms) from the top.
(Suppose for a minute here that you were using a grass or lavender, what you would be doing here is tying them off just below the heads)
So what you've ended up with is a long end below the tie-off & a short, stubby one above.
next thing to do is to splay the long ends out (hence the need for a working surface) so that the long ends splay out and the short, stubby ones stand up perpendicular to the working surface.
For sake of ease, it's best to arrange the long ends so that they point in compass points relative to you. (North, South, East & West)
Make sure that the fifth long end also points East. So you should have one end in N, W & S - with the remaining two strands pointing E (You'll have a top E and a bottom E)
Now to start the weaving.
Take the bottom E strand & pass it beneath both the top E strand & the N strand.
Now take the whole thing and rotate it a quarter turn Deosil (sun/clockwise) so that once again, the direction with two strands goes from being in the N, to being in the E.
Once again, take the lower E strand and pass beneath the top E & the N strands, then rotate a quarter turn Deosil once again.
Keep on repeating this action. Very quickly you'll notice that the work starts to pull up into a sort of a basket shape around the stubby ends - this is exactly what we want. - Continue in this way until you have a 'basket' that's long enough to cover the stubby ends completely.
If your making a rattle, you'll also need to leave about 4 inches (10 cms) of raw ends to form the handle.
*At this point, if you're making a rattle with craft straws, you'll want to put some dried lentils/peas or beans into the 'basket' to create sound.*
To fasten off:
Grab the raws ends together & fasten off by either catching up in another elastic band, or a second length of string or ribbon.
*If you're making a rattle, you might choose to 'finish' the handle in some way - plaiting or twisting for example*
If your finished piece was made from craft straws, you might choose at this point to paint/felt tip/crayon your finished piece to make it really bright.
This is the method for a very basic Dolly. There are many more advanced techniques you could employ to make different shapes. It's very easy to obtain books/instruction sheets etc. from your local library. Have fun - Go mad!
Author: Piers Storey Posted 25/07/2009
Lammas Games
We are currently checking who is running the games and what activities we can look forward to this Lammas.
We hope to update this article over the next couple of day so keep an eye on this article if your hoping to join in and have some fun!
Author: Piers Storey Posted 25/07/2009
Cooking at Avebury during Sabbats
Is your conscience clear with using gas cookers in Avebury or is there a better way?
