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| Braided Straw with Wheat Seed Head and dried flowers |
Folklore has it that, “Good Luck, Happiness, and Prosperity
will come to anyone with Wheat Weaving in his home.”
A common Heart design is named “Mordiford”. It’s named for a
village in England known for creating heart shaped wheat weavings.
America the Beautiful
tells of “Spacious skies and amber waves of grain”. For anyone who has seen
wheat fields blowing in the wind, they know exactly what that song is talking
about. It’s a gorgeous sight and one
that I will never get tired of gazing upon. On
my way home each evening, I round a bend on a ridge that overlooks several crop
fields. One of those is always growing grains of some sort or another. Mid- summer when the air blows its hot breath
and the fields are so tall, it’s relaxing to slow down and just “see” the wind as it blows across those fields and sends the grasses swaying.
The grasses shimmer with both silver and green as you catch a glimpse at the
underside of the long leaves.
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| Early attempt at braiding Wheat a type of Accordion stitch |
As a young teen overseas, when we studied America (I was the
only American in a middle school class of British students) I loved hearing
about OUR “Grain Belt” and the importance of crop rotation. The visual I got
then of the grains growing to feed our country and the world has forever stayed
with me. Did you know that from a stalk
of wheat, we use the seed head to make the grains, flour, etc, and the rest of
the stalk is straw for animal bedding? I have found that people who don’t
handle types of hay and straw don’t really know those facts nor can tell them
apart. At one time, I didn’t either. I hadn’t seen wheat in its raw state until I was much older.
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| A Flat Braid with 3 Stalks of wheat |
Decades ago as an adult visiting in both
Austria and Germany, I picked up several wheat ornaments for the Christmas tree.
Our angel on top of the tree is even made of wheat. I was intrigued by the whole custom and craft
of weaving this grain stalk and coming to know the motif that I had loved for
all those years.
Several years later at EPCOT Center in Florida, I picked up
some more wheat ornaments from Denmark’s Village. (Touristy, I know!) But, I loved them and wished that I could
have done a whole tree in just wheat!
Then, several years ago, I happened upon a book at the
Library by Linda D. Beiler. It was
titled, Wheat Weaving & Straw Art. It is part of the Heritage Crafts Today
series. I found a quiet corner to myself
and began reading. I scrutinized every
page, every picture. I loved the
book! Needless to say I now have my own
copy!
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| A Love Knot's double ring design |
With all the things that I had going on, I never started the
wheat weaving. I kept the book handy and
frequently looked at it, but I let time pass.
Then, two years ago, in an un-mowed part of a field, I found some wheat
heads and pulled them up. I didn’t soak them or even handle them very carefully,
but I wanted to see if I could braid (plait) the stalks. I could! I was so excited! I held my creation and hurried back to the
house and hung it to dry. It wasn’t
anything special; not even very big, but it was a start!
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| First attempt at a Treble Clef for my musically inclined daughter |
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| 20 Acres of gorgeous wheat! (Those are not MY tire tracks) |
I drove my treasure home and began learning the craft that I’d
found so intriguing all those years ago.
Next year, I am setting aside a tiny plot of land to experiment
with different types of wheat on MY farm!
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