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| Photo: C Dear |
On a recent visit to Orkney I was very fortunate to be able to visit the stores in The Orkney Museum in Kirkwall with Tom Muir exhibitions officer and storyteller and Ellen Pesci curator. A wealth of lost knowledge is embedded in each basket form I saw. This hidden knowledge includes the exact materials used, when and where gathered, how processed, who made the basket, how often, when and where as well as more pragmatic information about how it was used and did designs vary between makers and locations. I also visited Kirkbuster Museum and had a fascinating discussion with Neil Leask, the custodian there. We shared many ideas and queries about specific techniques or materials that were used in the past. In the museum surrounded by a wide range of artefacts we were faced with the direct evidence of so much lost information in relation to an intimate understanding and relationship with the surrounding landscape.
For example he showed me a heather scratter, which is a small brush made from heather used for scrubbing pots and pans and apparently remarkably good for the porridge pot. These heather scrubbing brushes were also known on Skye and in the Scottish Highlands but what I found of great interest is the specific information that the binding for the handle could be bound in two different ways and that a different heather, berry heather, was used for this. Berry heather is crowberry and has long thin stems more even and finer than heather, it is a common plant in the Orkney landscape. Maybe the time of year and locations for gathering the different heathers was important, how we gather materials without reducing the source.
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| Photo: C Dear |
Some interesting points from our conversations -
Over three miles of heather simmens (heather rope) was needed to redo the roof of the museum at Corrigall - these ropes go over the large stone slabs of the roof to protect them from splitting up with frost.
Over three miles of heather simmens (heather rope) was needed to redo the roof of the museum at Corrigall - these ropes go over the large stone slabs of the roof to protect them from splitting up with frost.
Photos: C Dear
Orkney basket forms and names, there are many more - ( thanks to Tom Muir for definitions)
Cubbie - this is a circular form with a solid base ( also known as kishie in Shetland)
Caisie - this is a circular form with an open base - traditionally were used to hold things with maybe a piece of cloth at the bottom which can be replaced
Flakie - mat or large flat basket for winnowing
Neil Leask told me about how in the 1970’s he spoke with an old man born in the 1880’s who remembered ‘a time when there was no bought string in the house’.
Links:
Kirkbuster Farm Museum and The Orkney Museum
https://orkneymuseum.wordpress.com/category/kirbuster-museum/
Woven communities, Scottish basket website
https://wovencommunities.org/?s=orkney