Why I got into making cordage (string) from plants

I was 21 years old when I was introduced to the simple process of making string from stinging nettles. Standing with friends in the Green Fields at Glastonbury Festival, I was young and open. Here, in this peaceful setting, away from the main festival, an exciting array of natural and ancient crafts were being shared. Someone casually picked a summer seeding stem of nettles and showed me how to strip, extract the fibres then twist it into cordage (string). I was mesmerised, and made the cord into a bracelet that I kept on my wrist for the rest of the summer.

A decade or so later I attended a course with Native Awareness and was delighted that my hands and mind remembered the process of transforming weeds into cord. That year I took several train journeys, twisting and twining my way across the country. A pile of nettle fibres in my lap slowly being brought together into a durable string. By the end of the year I had a whole ball of nettle string from my train travel efforts. I was proud of my achievement, having made enough string to create something practical with.

Why make cordage from plant fibres?

Fast forward another couple of decades and I found myself being made redundant after three years working as an in-person and online facilitator and coach. As I closed my work laptop for the last time, I immediately felt liberated. Not from my colleagues or even my work, but from being bound to a computer screen. I asked myself; if I could do anything, what would it be?

I was brought up using my hands, making crafts from fabric to natural materials, repurposing old and used materials. As a youth, I loved the transformation from something discarded into something usable again. It's similar to wild food foraging in that way; changing perspective and seeing weeds as valuable, nutritious food and medicine.

Using waste and weeds

Getting back to using my hands, I rediscovered my love of cordage making. The simple, meditative process of combining and twisting plant fibres to create something strong and versatile had me hooked. It felt like a natural progression to understanding plants more deeply. Plants not just as food, but for all their wide uses. It was also healing, helping me find my way back to myself after being absorbed into an online world from the virtual office of my kitchen table.

I began to see the world through the eyes of a forager again. Though this time it wasn't as ingredients, it was as unwanted, abundant fibres. From weeds such as brambles to nettles, plantain and dandelions. From cultivated and exotic plants such as New Zealand flax, Pendulus sedge, Cordyline, Daffodils and Crocosmia. My question was simple: What weeds and garden 'waste' do people want removing and how can I use it?

The pleasure of making cordage from plants

To use my hands to transform strimmed weeds and garden cuttings into cordage is satisfying and empowering. To do physical work and move with the seasons as; the hay gets cut, the dandelions seed and the brambles lengthen is exciting and rewarding. Introducing others to the potential and purpose of the discarded weeds and invasive plants around us is humbling and connecting. Using our hands to come together, celebrate plants through harvesting and creating with them is a wonderful, life-affirming activity. It makes me feel more connected, resourced and alive.

More about making cordage from plant fibres: Wild Cordage Making

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