As we begin to settle into new routines and our new environment, here on the east coast of Scotland my thoughts have once again turned to gathering and processing my own fibres.

November isn’t generally thought of as a good time of year for gathering anything in the northern hemisphere, but although there might not be a rich abundance of plant materials on offer, I still believe that you can always find something to make a basket.

Our new home is a curious mix of environments – a busy, town high street to the front, but at the back, beautifully kept parks, leading to the sea.

Sunday morning walks through the parks, with my two youngest daughters, led me to discover a plentiful plant material to forage. Autumn weather had blown old cordyline leaves over the grass and beds and it looked so like a small version of the New Zealand flax that I have worked with for years, that it at once felt familiar.,

I gathered an armful and we carried on to feed the ducks and moorhens at the pond.

Later that day I started splitting each cordyline leaf into thin strips. The leaves were the old growth and very tough and rigid. I haven’t worked with cordyline before, but felt that boiling them would be a good start to improving their flexibility. Splitting each one into strips, made it much easier to fit them into one of my old dye pans.

I found that the leaves would split quite easily, if started at the thick end with a pair of snips and then split along the length with my thumb nail. The next day, I put them on to boil for 30 minutes and then turned off the heat and left them to soak in the water, until it had cooled.

I wish that I was already set up for getting back to natural dyeing, as the resulting liquid from the boiling process, looked full of promise. Something to try next year, when the old washhouse here is no longer being used as a temporary duckhouse, until their new quarters are ready.

I think the washhouse will prove to be an ideal space for dyeing and processing fibres, with its Belfast sink and plenty of drying space. There is even an old mangle, which might be refurbished and used for a variety of craft purposes.

It will also be nice for my family to be free from the smell of plant fibres steaming in the kitchen! 

These things take time though, and I find that it’s best to get on as well as you can, rather than waiting for the perfect set-up. If I had waited for that, I would never have started basketry at all and it is amazing what you can achieve, with limited resources and space.

Once the strips of cordyline were cool, I gave them a quick rinse in the bath and eager to improve their flexibility as much as possible, I began rubbing small batches of strips between my hands. I also bent the strips over my hands at intervals, to soften up the fibres. You can see a little bit of my process if you check out my reels over on Instagram.

The resulting strips were much improved and could have been used as they were, for a variety of basketry and cordage making techniques. I always seem to be drawn to fine fibres though and found that whilst still damp, the strips could easily be split into very fine strands.

They kept their strength, through all of these processes, and were perfect for the fine coiling that I love and that has become such a big part of my creative practice. I used cordyline for the wrapping fibre, as well as the core fibre.

I love the rich earthy brown of the fibres and the natural variations in tone. To me, it makes the coil work look like it could have formed naturally and been picked up off the forest floor.

So I have found a new plant friend already, just a few weeks into our time here. It has the benefit of me being able to collect and store the leaves when I see them and then process them in batches as required, rather than having to make time straight away to process fresh leaves. This is always a big help to me, as work is fitted around my busy family and it works well too, when you have limited space. Dry old season leaves like these need little care to store them, other than being dry and ventilated.

I am sure that I can improve this process still further and I am looking forward to working with cordyline over the coming months. It will be interesting to see what other plant materials I find, as the seasons change.