Читать книгу Dadventures: Amazing Outdoor Adventures for Daring Dads and Fearless Kids - Alex Gregory, Alex Gregory - Страница 16

Creating something with your own hands is extremely rewarding. Of course, in times past there was no choice but to make everything you needed, but no one can realistically do so now. With this activity it’s not so much about the product you make – let’s be honest, the string you make simply isn’t going to be as good as any you can buy in a shop – but the process of making it from material you find is rewarding and great fun. When sitting there making it, watching the string grow longer, you really feel a great sense of satisfaction.

What you need

 A good supply of strong, natural fibres. Raffia is the best and easiest to use. It’s a very strong fibre that’s been prepared perfectly, ready for you to create your string. Garden centres, florists and craft shops often sell packets very cheaply for tying up plants and displaying flowers, and one packet is sufficient for you to make metres of thin string. Flax fibres are ideal, too.

 It’s also possible to make string with stinging-nettle stems, very fine tree roots or the bark of certain species of tree, such as willow, cut into thin strips. All these will take a little extra processing to get into the thin strands required.

 Strong fingers and patience.

What to do

1 Find a comfortable place to sit.

2 Gather a few long fibres together between your fingers and find the middle point of all the fibres.

3 Bend them in half to get to the starting point of your string.

4 Hold the bend of the fibres firmly between the fingers of one hand and in the fingers of your other hand twist the top fibres together.

5 As you twist, pull them around and underneath the bottom fibres, and hold in position.

6 Take the fibres that are now at the top and repeat the movement, twisting and pulling around the back. These first few moves are the most tricky. From here on the process is simple and you’ll find yourself developing an easy rhythm.

7 You’ll be alternating which group of fibres are at the top. Each time twist them tightly, then move them around the back and repeat.

8 It’s important to keep the strands tight and the twists close together. This will make your string much stronger and more useable. In no time at all you’ll see your skills working and a piece of string will form.

9 Nature does a pretty good job but, unfortunately, it doesn’t produce never-ending fibres, so you’ll soon get to the end of your fibres. When this happens it’s a really simple process to add in more fibres so you can continue to make a longer piece of string.

10 Take two more long fibres, bend them in half and at the bend push them into the point where your string is coming together.

11 As tightly as you can, continue the process, now twisting and turning these new fibres as well as the old.

12 It’s important to keep the new pieces tight in, with no gaps where they meet the original fibres.

13 Continue until you have made the length of string you want.

14 Once you have made as much as you want to, simply gather all the strands together and tie a knot in the end. Cut away the remaining strands of fibre past the knot to neaten it up.

Ropes for ships used to be made out of hemp like this in times past. It must have been painstaking work, but the twisting and turning back on itself produces an incredibly strong cord. The tighter the twists you make, the stronger the string will be.

I was first taught how to make string by a relative of mine. He and his wife turned up at our house one afternoon in a battered, old red postal van that had been converted inside to become their home. They were nomads from Australia on a journey around the world, selling products that they’d made themselves, notably tiny little crepe-paper kites. These kites really did work incredibly well too! We spent the afternoon together, and I was drawn in and fascinated by the skills of this guy.

He’d been adopted by an Aborigine mother and brought up in the bush, so from a very young age he’d been taught bushcraft – how to survive by living off the land and making things. Once he’d shown me how to construct one of these little kites, I’d learnt to play (badly) the didgeridoo and the pheasant he’d picked up on the way to us had been ‘processed’ (I’m fairly sure it was roadkill), we then started work on making string.

Digging out a supply of dried flax grass from a corner of the van, he proceeded to show me the way to hold the fibres, twist, push away, turn, pinch and repeat. Before my eyes, the most perfect piece of natural string I’ve ever seen grew between his tough, leathery, supple, skilled fingers. Very quickly he’d made a foot-long length of string, and as he twisted and turned he talked to me about all things outdoors and living out of the back of a van. As this amazing product was made he showed me how to make it thicker and thinner for different requirements. I was transfixed.

We’ve always used string made this way for bracelets and necklaces. Turning it into a bracelet is simplicity itself. Once you’ve made a knot in one end, simply wrap the string around your wrist and push the knot through the twist at the start of your piece of string. Because it’s been twisted tight, the knot will hold tight, forming a secure bracelet around your wrist. My daughter Daisy makes them for me now, and I love wearing her rough little bracelets, as they remind me of the effort she’s taken to fashion them, the skill she’s learnt from me in doing so and the time we’ve spent outside, quietly making them together.