This summer Recovering Joy Arts and Nature Center planted a small flax garden to learn about growing and processing flax plants into linen fibers.
Fiber artist Sarah Broomfield cut a small bundle of flax plants and, using makeshift tools, was able to turn the plants into linen fibers, turning straw into gold.
The pictures show the process in a clockwise direction starting at top left.
First, the bundle of flax plants was soaked for around 14 days in a bucket of water that was changed every few days to keep it fresh. The soaking, called retting, allows the outside woody parts of the stems to soften and start breaking down so they can release the inner linen fibers.
Next, the bundle of flax stems was allowed to dry completely before breaking off the shives from the inner fibers by hitting them with a board.
Once the shives were broken, the scrutching began. She used wool cards to comb the fibers and remove more of the shives. She used two different wool cards, with the second set having finer teeth than the first. Combing the fibers through the second, finer card began the hacklling step, which removed all the shives from the linen fibers. Now the linen fibers were smoothed, combed, and ready to spin into linen thread.
