Working with Willow to build a grass hut dome
I really love working with Willow. We have a big stand of Willow now at the end of fiddlehead Pond. I’ve let it grow for quite a few years so they are about 20 feet tall or something like that now.
For making the Stream side grass hot, I used Alder branches. Now they won’t have a lot of strength and they will break over the years.
But not all of them will break and certainly not all the same time. So as we will branches around them, not just over under over under and push it down, because that creates no strength.
Instead, I pair the Willow. When the branches are thicker than my thumb, it means I need to , put it just below my knee and bend it and then scoot it an inch or two and bend it again and keep doing that all the way up until it’s easily bendable.
Basket, upgrades, many inches apart, probably eight and up. So they don’t have to bend as much as they do when I making a basket where the uprights are one to 2 inches apart.
I am finding it very important to them before I start trying to weave them.
So the way I leave them is this. I look at the size of the branch, the thickness of the butt and the length. Then I try to have the button at the opening . So I look back and see the comparison between the distance of the uprights and the thickness of the willow. Starting probably a metre back from where I wanted it to end, I used to Weavers. I put them on both sides of one upright and cross them as they come through the next so one goes behind and one comes out. I tried them together.
I tried them together, which creates a very strong bond between the willow and the Alders. Because of strength, it would be very hard for them to break, even if heavy snow falls and sits on them.
So the Twining process is this. The one that went in first on the bottom is crossed by the one coming out, which will sit above it that one on the top then goes in first into the next gap and sits on the bottom. The other one comes the other direction and sits on top of it. so every time there’s a gap, the Willow on the bottom switches places and is on the top. If there were no uprights, the two Willows would just look like they had been twisted around one another over and over making a rope. A single rope in order to bend the Willow , it’s best I to pull it until it’s longer than the gap between to all the uprights. I then reach it upward, into the gap, and then downward and out the next Gap hooking the edge of it onto that upright. It’s often best to bend an older , far away from the end.
So, for instance, if the Alder is 2 feet long and needs to go into a 6 inch gap. I would likely bend it at the gap and then push the end of it into the gap following the band. So that I’m not having to bend the end of the branch, but rather bending it further along where it’s thinner and more bendable.
Sometimes the Alders are very resistant and it takes a lot of force and muscle power to put them where you want them to be. For this reason, it’s important to choose all those I mean Willows correctly. You can’t use one that’s too thick. My thumb is a good measure. if it’s slightly bigger than my thumb and it’s going to go long distance between Alders, it will work if I bend it against my knee first. If it gets to be too wide, it would be better to use for an upright to try and leave with it.
Willow is generally very smooth. It feels good on my hands.
When I’m making a grass hunt, the purpose of the willow is too full. First, it needs to hold the elders in place firmly creating a solid structure.
Second, it is a backdrop for the grass that will be leaned against it.
I used to think that you had to leave the grass in between the Willow. But I have come to learn from experience, that mashing the grass and shoving it between the willow checkerboard pattern is not a good idea. These are the reasons. First, when you squish the grass, it loses all the air in between it, and therefore has no more insulating power. Also, it’s very hard to make a tight seal when you’re going around the corner and back out , along side and all upright. Unless you use an incredible amount of grass, you will have gaps and light coming in alongside the Alder upright.
For this reason, I find it much better to leave the grass fluffy and sick and lay it on the outside of the structure.
In the beginning, I thought that you could spread out the grass and make it go farther by using less in each place. I have come to learn that that is a bad system. Not only is it hard to patch it up when it has light coming through , but also it’s much easier to patch it up by squishing the grass closer together sideways.
Adding the grass and layers as you would that a house or put on shingles, makes a wonderful seal and a wonderful thickness against the elements, especially the wind. This last I’ve been making , I have been weaving the Willow high enough for the first stand of grass. Some grass is very short, less than a foot. I don’t find that to be of any value. The next size of Canary grass is about 2 feet tall. I find that to be a pretty good length. The reason it is is because it is 2 feet but when I gather the grass and stack it up onto whatever I’m going to drag it on, it’s never exactly on top of each other.
So when I retrieve the grass next, or even as retrieving it from the ground, The ends are uneven enough that it becomes about 2 1/2 feet tall.
Placing the first layer of grass on the ground around the structure, I find that if you do the logical thing and stand, but on the ground, the tops play out and the wind will catch it and knock it over. so I find that putting the top of the grass on the ground and letting it extend a little bit away from the structure, a few inches, and having the butts upright, I am able to make a tighter thicker layer against the structure. The subsequent layers of the side of the structure will also be Side up but up.
Throughout the winter, the grass will pack down if there is snow piled on it. So the thicker it is, the longer it will last and the better protection it will be against the elements. After laying the grass against the first , rose of Willow, it’s time to add another couple of feet of Will weaving. Is often the case, the uprights are not necessarily tall enough.
Down at the bottom, they are wider apart than they are at the top. So , rose of Willow, it’s time to add another couple of feet of Will weaving. Is often the case, the uprights are not necessarily tall enough.
Down at the bottom, they are wider apart then they are at the top. So it’s to fill in those gaps with shorter all their sticks. Where I’m working beside the Stream soil is very moist quite a few inches down.
So because of that, I am able to shove the Alders deep into the earth. As they are not connected at the top, they will move around flopping back-and-forth for a little while. But as the willow weaving rises, Connected Alders become tightly woven into the structure.
Since nature doesn’t provide exactly what I need when I want it, many of those are going to run out before the top of the structure. To add another link, the new upright is shoved in beside the old upright , a few layers down into the weaving.
In this way, the new upgrade is held firmly in place alongside the old upright for a few inches and then extends much farther up the structure, filling in the gap.
In weaving Baskets in general, whenever the structure needs to be flailed outward, And upright is added in this manner. So it is a secure way of lengthening an upright area when weaving around the structure,
Each Willow has a thick butt and a skinny tip. As you leave along, find that it has less strength. When using a tall branch, there are generally many forks, and therefore many thin branches at the end. Or somewhere beyond the middle.
When these Willows taper off and have no more strength, the next Willow can be placed alongside it and carry on together with the first one. Making it much stronger. In general, when using Willow, it can be placed together with chip to tip or tip to fuck. When I’m weaving around a grass structure, I like the Overlap so as to continue the strength all the way around. It’s best to go to the joints are not obvious.
So working the Willow this way all the way around the structure starting at the one side of the door opening and ending at the other side of the door, opening means that at some point , the Willow will have to be placed tipped to tip so that there is a butt at each side of the opening. It’s very important to emphasize the need for strength at the edges of the doorway. A floppy Willow at the doorway will let the upright loose. If door is to be made, and attached, that upright needs to be very sturdy held in place.
If chips in the doorway area, they need to be fitted backwards and woven deeply into the structure. There also needs to be many of them if they’re not very thick. One thick but paired with another willow with a thick butt and extending a couple inches beyond the upright in place very well. That said
That said, Willow will shrink if it is cut fresh before using. It is best to use fresh Willow that is very bendable. This is true, especially if you need to use the Willow right away. Drying Willow and then , soaking it is necessary, it might not always be ready at the time that you want to leave. You might be ready before it, or it might be ready before you. Over soaking it will cause the bark too decompose and the appearance of the willow will suffer.
Now that I’ve said all that about ending with butts at the doorway, it is good to have a few Willows placed in later around the branch, and we deeply into the structure.
As the weaving gets higher, to the height of the doorway, it can begin to go across the door creating a frame. The weaving can continue all the way up above it to the top.
As the top of the doorway is going to be further in toward the centre of the structure, snow and rain will fall vertically and fill the doorway.
Making a porch roof will come in handy. Once the Willow is woven up above the doorway, long straight pieces Can be shoved in to create an overhang for a little roof. Since Alder breaks when it gets a few years old, I would not suggest the base of the roof, the Joyce, as it were, to be made of Alder. Any kind of sapling would probably work, for instance Mabel, Ash or any other hardwood. Willow can also be used. However, Willow is probably not going to work as well as something like Cedar.
Cedar is a very strong durable and long lasting material. Cedar branches are often curved. So if you take some thick, curved willow branches, and curved them outward instead of letting them hang downward, And them tightly into that position with thick all Willow, it can make a nice little roots. Also Cedars that extend all the way through the top of the structure and lean on or between the willow weaving on one side and the Willow weaving on the other side, will be the most sturdy Foundation for the roof.
In the same way, as weaving the walls of the grass hut structure, the roof can be woven flat.
It will be important to pair the Willow, but to tip. Otherwise, the flat surface will the same way making a flat For a basket with Ben.
Pairing should avoid this problem. The roof should also be attached to the edge of the structure, once the roof is a woven flat surface. Using a very bendable piece of Willow and pairing it with another structure can be lashed together to wall.
When, reaching the very top of the structure, if it is a dome, or if it is a TP, it’s best to have the grass going vertically. Or nearly so. A frame can be made to place on the top frame on the top is difficult if it’s a Tipi. Snow is likely to sit on the top of the round top of a dome, and likely will leak, it is much better to have a small pyramid structure on top that is covered with thick grass to make sure the rain goes down the sides and not soaks into the top.
After seagrass is placed on the entire structure, there may be work to do on the inside. It is good if there is quite a bit of grass on the ground ground. This will make for a nice spot for sitting or laying down. The walls may have grass hanging through. be careful when pulling them out as the edges of sage and some grass is very sharp. I cut my hands about five times yesterday, pulling some of the loose grass out and dropping into the floor.
As I said earlier, the first layer of grass around the base of the Tipi is , a couple feet high. The next layer can be much longer. L3 grab
When canary grass gets tall enough, it will lean down, generally because of the wind. When that happens, in an effort to reach the sun again, the grass continues to grow. In some cases, it can become 10 feet long. When selecting grass, grass will work best on the top of the grass high, so sorting the grass or waiting to use the grass from windblown areas of the field is a good idea.
Bear in mind that a very long piece of grass is liable to be blown with the wind if it is on the top layer.
Sometimes Willow is wrapped around the top outside of the grass hunt. I don’t like doing that, for the reasons I said before, when you cross the grass, I mean the willow in the structure dense grass and leaves a gap. It would be better to just lay a piece of Willow on the outside of the finish structure and then with a thin piece of Willow tie around it to the inside Willow.
For making the Stream side grass hot, I used Alder branches. Now they won’t have a lot of strength and they will break over the years.
But not all of them will break and certainly not all the same time. So as we will branches around them, not just over under over under and push it down, because that creates no strength.
Instead, I pair the Willow. When the branches are thicker than my thumb, it means I need to , put it just below my knee and bend it and then scoot it an inch or two and bend it again and keep doing that all the way up until it’s easily bendable.
Basket, upgrades, many inches apart, probably eight and up. So they don’t have to bend as much as they do when I making a basket where the uprights are one to 2 inches apart.
I am finding it very important to them before I start trying to weave them.
So the way I leave them is this. I look at the size of the branch, the thickness of the butt and the length. Then I try to have the button at the opening . So I look back and see the comparison between the distance of the uprights and the thickness of the willow. Starting probably a metre back from where I wanted it to end, I used to Weavers. I put them on both sides of one upright and cross them as they come through the next so one goes behind and one comes out. I tried them together.
I tried them together, which creates a very strong bond between the willow and the Alders. Because of strength, it would be very hard for them to break, even if heavy snow falls and sits on them.
So the Twining process is this. The one that went in first on the bottom is crossed by the one coming out, which will sit above it that one on the top then goes in first into the next gap and sits on the bottom. The other one comes the other direction and sits on top of it. so every time there’s a gap, the Willow on the bottom switches places and is on the top. If there were no uprights, the two Willows would just look like they had been twisted around one another over and over making a rope. A single rope in order to bend the Willow , it’s best I to pull it until it’s longer than the gap between to all the uprights. I then reach it upward, into the gap, and then downward and out the next Gap hooking the edge of it onto that upright. It’s often best to bend an older , far away from the end.
So, for instance, if the Alder is 2 feet long and needs to go into a 6 inch gap. I would likely bend it at the gap and then push the end of it into the gap following the band. So that I’m not having to bend the end of the branch, but rather bending it further along where it’s thinner and more bendable.
Sometimes the Alders are very resistant and it takes a lot of force and muscle power to put them where you want them to be. For this reason, it’s important to choose all those I mean Willows correctly. You can’t use one that’s too thick. My thumb is a good measure. if it’s slightly bigger than my thumb and it’s going to go long distance between Alders, it will work if I bend it against my knee first. If it gets to be too wide, it would be better to use for an upright to try and leave with it.
Willow is generally very smooth. It feels good on my hands.
When I’m making a grass hunt, the purpose of the willow is too full. First, it needs to hold the elders in place firmly creating a solid structure.
Second, it is a backdrop for the grass that will be leaned against it.
I used to think that you had to leave the grass in between the Willow. But I have come to learn from experience, that mashing the grass and shoving it between the willow checkerboard pattern is not a good idea. These are the reasons. First, when you squish the grass, it loses all the air in between it, and therefore has no more insulating power. Also, it’s very hard to make a tight seal when you’re going around the corner and back out , along side and all upright. Unless you use an incredible amount of grass, you will have gaps and light coming in alongside the Alder upright.
For this reason, I find it much better to leave the grass fluffy and sick and lay it on the outside of the structure.
In the beginning, I thought that you could spread out the grass and make it go farther by using less in each place. I have come to learn that that is a bad system. Not only is it hard to patch it up when it has light coming through , but also it’s much easier to patch it up by squishing the grass closer together sideways.
Adding the grass and layers as you would that a house or put on shingles, makes a wonderful seal and a wonderful thickness against the elements, especially the wind. This last I’ve been making , I have been weaving the Willow high enough for the first stand of grass. Some grass is very short, less than a foot. I don’t find that to be of any value. The next size of Canary grass is about 2 feet tall. I find that to be a pretty good length. The reason it is is because it is 2 feet but when I gather the grass and stack it up onto whatever I’m going to drag it on, it’s never exactly on top of each other.
So when I retrieve the grass next, or even as retrieving it from the ground, The ends are uneven enough that it becomes about 2 1/2 feet tall.
Placing the first layer of grass on the ground around the structure, I find that if you do the logical thing and stand, but on the ground, the tops play out and the wind will catch it and knock it over. so I find that putting the top of the grass on the ground and letting it extend a little bit away from the structure, a few inches, and having the butts upright, I am able to make a tighter thicker layer against the structure. The subsequent layers of the side of the structure will also be Side up but up.
Throughout the winter, the grass will pack down if there is snow piled on it. So the thicker it is, the longer it will last and the better protection it will be against the elements. After laying the grass against the first , rose of Willow, it’s time to add another couple of feet of Will weaving. Is often the case, the uprights are not necessarily tall enough.
Down at the bottom, they are wider apart than they are at the top. So , rose of Willow, it’s time to add another couple of feet of Will weaving. Is often the case, the uprights are not necessarily tall enough.
Down at the bottom, they are wider apart then they are at the top. So it’s to fill in those gaps with shorter all their sticks. Where I’m working beside the Stream soil is very moist quite a few inches down.
So because of that, I am able to shove the Alders deep into the earth. As they are not connected at the top, they will move around flopping back-and-forth for a little while. But as the willow weaving rises, Connected Alders become tightly woven into the structure.
Since nature doesn’t provide exactly what I need when I want it, many of those are going to run out before the top of the structure. To add another link, the new upright is shoved in beside the old upright , a few layers down into the weaving.
In this way, the new upgrade is held firmly in place alongside the old upright for a few inches and then extends much farther up the structure, filling in the gap.
In weaving Baskets in general, whenever the structure needs to be flailed outward, And upright is added in this manner. So it is a secure way of lengthening an upright area when weaving around the structure,
Each Willow has a thick butt and a skinny tip. As you leave along, find that it has less strength. When using a tall branch, there are generally many forks, and therefore many thin branches at the end. Or somewhere beyond the middle.
When these Willows taper off and have no more strength, the next Willow can be placed alongside it and carry on together with the first one. Making it much stronger. In general, when using Willow, it can be placed together with chip to tip or tip to fuck. When I’m weaving around a grass structure, I like the Overlap so as to continue the strength all the way around. It’s best to go to the joints are not obvious.
So working the Willow this way all the way around the structure starting at the one side of the door opening and ending at the other side of the door, opening means that at some point , the Willow will have to be placed tipped to tip so that there is a butt at each side of the opening. It’s very important to emphasize the need for strength at the edges of the doorway. A floppy Willow at the doorway will let the upright loose. If door is to be made, and attached, that upright needs to be very sturdy held in place.
If chips in the doorway area, they need to be fitted backwards and woven deeply into the structure. There also needs to be many of them if they’re not very thick. One thick but paired with another willow with a thick butt and extending a couple inches beyond the upright in place very well. That said
That said, Willow will shrink if it is cut fresh before using. It is best to use fresh Willow that is very bendable. This is true, especially if you need to use the Willow right away. Drying Willow and then , soaking it is necessary, it might not always be ready at the time that you want to leave. You might be ready before it, or it might be ready before you. Over soaking it will cause the bark too decompose and the appearance of the willow will suffer.
Now that I’ve said all that about ending with butts at the doorway, it is good to have a few Willows placed in later around the branch, and we deeply into the structure.
As the weaving gets higher, to the height of the doorway, it can begin to go across the door creating a frame. The weaving can continue all the way up above it to the top.
As the top of the doorway is going to be further in toward the centre of the structure, snow and rain will fall vertically and fill the doorway.
Making a porch roof will come in handy. Once the Willow is woven up above the doorway, long straight pieces Can be shoved in to create an overhang for a little roof. Since Alder breaks when it gets a few years old, I would not suggest the base of the roof, the Joyce, as it were, to be made of Alder. Any kind of sapling would probably work, for instance Mabel, Ash or any other hardwood. Willow can also be used. However, Willow is probably not going to work as well as something like Cedar.
Cedar is a very strong durable and long lasting material. Cedar branches are often curved. So if you take some thick, curved willow branches, and curved them outward instead of letting them hang downward, And them tightly into that position with thick all Willow, it can make a nice little roots. Also Cedars that extend all the way through the top of the structure and lean on or between the willow weaving on one side and the Willow weaving on the other side, will be the most sturdy Foundation for the roof.
In the same way, as weaving the walls of the grass hut structure, the roof can be woven flat.
It will be important to pair the Willow, but to tip. Otherwise, the flat surface will the same way making a flat For a basket with Ben.
Pairing should avoid this problem. The roof should also be attached to the edge of the structure, once the roof is a woven flat surface. Using a very bendable piece of Willow and pairing it with another structure can be lashed together to wall.
When, reaching the very top of the structure, if it is a dome, or if it is a TP, it’s best to have the grass going vertically. Or nearly so. A frame can be made to place on the top frame on the top is difficult if it’s a Tipi. Snow is likely to sit on the top of the round top of a dome, and likely will leak, it is much better to have a small pyramid structure on top that is covered with thick grass to make sure the rain goes down the sides and not soaks into the top.
After seagrass is placed on the entire structure, there may be work to do on the inside. It is good if there is quite a bit of grass on the ground ground. This will make for a nice spot for sitting or laying down. The walls may have grass hanging through. be careful when pulling them out as the edges of sage and some grass is very sharp. I cut my hands about five times yesterday, pulling some of the loose grass out and dropping into the floor.
As I said earlier, the first layer of grass around the base of the Tipi is , a couple feet high. The next layer can be much longer. L3 grab
When canary grass gets tall enough, it will lean down, generally because of the wind. When that happens, in an effort to reach the sun again, the grass continues to grow. In some cases, it can become 10 feet long. When selecting grass, grass will work best on the top of the grass high, so sorting the grass or waiting to use the grass from windblown areas of the field is a good idea.
Bear in mind that a very long piece of grass is liable to be blown with the wind if it is on the top layer.
Sometimes Willow is wrapped around the top outside of the grass hunt. I don’t like doing that, for the reasons I said before, when you cross the grass, I mean the willow in the structure dense grass and leaves a gap. It would be better to just lay a piece of Willow on the outside of the finish structure and then with a thin piece of Willow tie around it to the inside Willow.