Braiding Activity

Today, I did something a little different: An activity focused activity.

Rather than just demonstrate and discuss making straw hats and bonnets, I gave visitors the opportunity to braid straw themselves. Well. Raffia.

I chose raffia instead of wheat or rye straw because it would be easier to work with. It was also more affordable.

Despite a background in working with young children and developing a wide variety of camp and craft activities, I was a little unsure of myself going into this one. Bridging from interpretating straw millinery as an aspect of women’s history to straw as a hands-on experience was a leap for me. When I was brainstorming around the idea, I knew I wanted to focus on the “this become this,” or the “fiber to function” if you will. In my mind, it would have been great to show off more than wheat & rye to plait/braid to hat: flax to linen, cotton to cloth, corn to broom, bark to basket, etc.. But, in reality and two weeks, one component was it.

I learned a few things during this activity today:

I plaited 52″ of plait today between visitors. This may go on a hat.

There are just so many times I can drop a pair of scissors into my apron pocket point down before the tip makes a hole and everything starts sliding through.
Fewer people knew how to do a basic braid than I assumed.
More adults wanted to do this than I anticipated.
Some adults really wanted to do this. I am very glad I brought along a couple hanks of my petite plait. I was able to set a few up to make 6 strand bookmakers
Natural raffia expands, really expands, when unpackaged
Some of my school coworkers know me well enough to stop by and make sure I’ve eaten.
Long time members will search out favorite interpreters. They told me this.
The downside of doing cool activities is you miss the other cool activities. I really wanted to do the ax throwing.