I am excited for this video! I have been doing much trial and error this winter with steaming. How long do you steam your rods? How long do you like to let them mellow? Really appreciate all of your videos, they're incredibly helpful. It's a wonderfully grounding craft.
4 years ago
| 1
Looking forward to this. Question what would be the ideal temperature for soaking? I find that my soaking gets better during the summertime. Is it only me or is it like that?
4 years ago | 0
Awesome, hey here are some nutty questions...Ph of water is that relevant or is h20 just needed to soak. Here we have hard water that goes to funk after a few days with a lot of solids that will settle out. I also have a stream but a ton of nitrogen algae blooms from field run off. Great for retting but not sure I want my willow covered in the brown algae. So I guess my question would be about the water, PH, Hardness, running, stagnant, fermenting critters? I ret my velvet leaf in my creek and the critters in there make short work of the flesh of the velvet leaf leaving a well cleaned fiber and stalk behind. I imagine willow would also get nibbled upon or does the bark save the inner core from the critters/ferment/retting? We have a lot of altitude difference in our topography here so planning on setting up a gravity fed series of watering troughs where I could soak my various fibers in and water my critters. I could control my flow a bit better that way and even the water through treatment if needed. So I am pretty excited to learn about the hydrology of the willow as I have no clue what it will take to get this job done. I have just enough info to be confused and a bit wary of diving in head first.
4 years ago | 0
Hello, I'm also looking forward to learn about soaking. Can you tell me about the influence of the water temperature, please, and what temperature you use? Thank you!
4 years ago (edited) | 0
Sorry I was actually wondering about the planting of willow from branches that you cut yourself. I know it is not about the use of the willow, sorry.
4 years ago | 0
Hanna Van Aelst
Hi you all,
I am planning to make a whole video answering questions on soaking, mellowing, steaming ,... willow (the prep) as many people seem to have issues with it. If you have any questions about preparing willow for weaving, leave them below so I can include them... Many thanks!
4 years ago | [YT] | 42