DYCP Application for Bec Briar

Weaving the land - developing a sense of belonging in the landscape
DYCP-00719170

Using weaving, writing and ethnobotanical exploration

A 12-month project developing a body of work reflecting seasonal connection to landscape 

“We went mackerel fishing at Watchet on the hot blackberry days of summer”

Local farmer

So many people living in the UK have become disconnected to the land that we inhabit, with nature separated off for visiting before returning to our houses. We have forgotten the names of tree species that line our streets, and have completely lost the language needed to describe native plants, our senses have numberd out instinctive understanding of the way the seasons change and impact the wild places around us.

There is a resurgence of interest in a native understanding of plants and our relationship to them, but often this becomes linked to traditions of other countries who have stronger links to land based cultures than the majority of people in the UK - so we fly to Central America to learn spirituality from plants there, or we import plants to use at ceremonies we have borrowed from other cultures.

I feel very strongly, that our seeking for connection needs to be closer to home. We need to look at the ground beneath our feet and pause; to watch a single plant through the seasons so that we can recognise its first shoots through to the dry stalks that remain through the winter; learn the birds that feed from it, and the way it dissolves back in to the earth. We need to watch how every plant and animal is interconnected to the other, including ourselves. 

We need to look at our own folklore and tales that describe our relationship with landscape from a time before we lost our connection; a local farmer, knocking in posts for me, described in this thick Somerset accent the days of his youth when he went mackerel fishing on the West Somerset coast on the hot blackberry days of summer. He measures the year according to the fruiting of hedges. His was not a simile or metaphor but the very language of his landscape. I  am immediately brought to those hot sticky late summer days with the red berries staining my fingers. 

We need not only to watch but to explore. What are the local names for this plant, what does this tell us about our relationship to it over generations? Does it feed wildlife, or even people? What insects does it attract? What would happen if it disappeared from the landscape, how would this impact the ecosystem? What fibres and colours might it give up to us with the correct harvesting and preparation - what craft knowledge is there if we look for it, and how many times  can it go through our hands, connecting us to both the plant and our soil, so that we can develop a sense of belonging in our landscape? 

There is a quiet power in the raw, life-and-death immediacy of living in nature and tending animals. A kind of deep knowing that happens while you focus on the task in hand - there is no time to consider if you want to do something; it must be done, at the right time. No sooner or later. The ewes will lamb when they are ready, the hawthorn berries ripen with the sun, the leaves fall when their job is done. 

As I write this, my first ewe has entered labour a week early. My job is to watch, from a distance, and allow her to take her time. To intervene too soon would be to disrupt and possibly introduce illness. 

I am hoping to explore these stories in my weaving as I keep learning. Given the freedom to experiment and expand my skills and creativity, I can move away from pieces that need to bring in an income, and have the freedom to make mistakes and develop work with a stronger story behind it.

Outputs:

• Journal/blog with updates on my harvesting, shepherding, traditional farming using regenerative practices and blade shearing. Research including local and land-connected folklore that includes the stories of people working the land. I will continue my ethnobotanical research to see where there is an existing record of human plant relationships. Written explanations of my sampling/artistic work. I would love to write a book about my year on the land, one day. I am often asked to. This could be the starting point.
• A body of work that takes the viewer on a journey through seasons and invites them to learn about the plants in the piece. Using wool and plant fibres from the fields around my farm and Exmoor. Weaving both on and off the loom, making looms from sticks on the farm and weaving right in the field, making cordage from different plants to weave with. I will explore the space where cloth and baskets meet- weaving with different materials to create forms that reflect the diversity of species on the land.
• I will exhibit this, probably in my workshop where there is a beautiful barn I can use and the sheep across the road, but I may be able to work with Somerset Art Works to find a venue or another exhibition to join in with, as they are working on the theme of wool this year. 
• A series of 3 creative workshops that I can deliver in my workshop or at other venues, that brings people together to learn from my experiences while harvesting and making their own weavings, using simple weaving looms eg backstrap or table looms.

 

Natural Ink workshop held in February 2024

 

 

A car full of my fleeces back from the mill ready to be handspun

The reality of farming in a wet Somerset winter landscape!!

Country Homes and Interiors Magazine

 

I have a 10 shaft countermarch floor loom, recently purchased. I also use backstrap looms with rigid heddles and intend to make one from the wood on our land to weave my wool and plant fibres with. 

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A piece made from autumn shorn lambs born last April on the farm; handspun black lambswool and my own Portland mill spun warp.

Playing with twill and plain weave together

 

 

Black Kat. Icelandic lamb, born in West Somerset on the Brendon Hills. Blade shorn in September 2023.	Black Kat's fibre spun lopi style and woven with locally grown Jacob from the Heydon Hill flock. All fibre grown less than 2 miles from my home.
Black Kat weave, using plain weave and floats.	Early weaving before I had taken any classes with Janet Phillips, showing diversity of colour in my flock.
Somerset Shepherd's Check. Hand woven Shepherd's check made with 100% Jacob wool grown on Exmoor. A project exploring the traditional pattern worn by shepherds in Northumberland.	An early weave, rosepath using home grown hand woven fleeces frmo my flock - Portland and Shetland. I am still exploring the diversity of twill weaves.
Walnut and Madder from our land	A range of colours from our land
Yarns from my flock, in my own willow basket	Sliver and roving from my flock
Willow leaves from our land - for dyeing - in my own willow basket	Coreopsis from our land, for dyeing - in my own willow basket