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Make a Harvest Trophy

Spend a day learning about the traditional and endangered craft of straw work. During the workshop your tutor will teach you how to prepare and store the straw, as well as discuss the history and significance of this humble material.

Make a harvest trophy using a 5 straw spiral plait, learn how to increase, decrease and add new straws. The workshop will take place behind the scenes in the Conservation Laboratory, where you can take inspiration from straw work in the museum collections for your own work!

All materials are included.

Please bring an apron, as the straw can be dusty.

No experience is necessary, although some manual dexterity is required.

Suitable for 18+.

Further resources

Useful knots for straw workers

The use of the correct knot will ensure that your work will look tidy. Tying a bunch of straws together = Clove Hitch Tying two straws together at right angles = Transom Knot A knot that will not slip = Ligature Knot Joining straw threads = Weavers Knot Clove Hitch Method 1 Clove Hitch Method 2 Transom Knot Method 1 Transom Knot Method 2 (using a Clove Hitch) Ligature Knot This knot is sometimes called the Surgeon’s knot but the…

FAQs About Straw

1. THE BASIC MATERIAL For Corn Dolly making and decorative straw work a hollow stemmed straw is required, with a good length between the head of the wheat and the first leaf node. Some of these varieties are available from specialist growers who supply to straw workers (see List of Suppliers,) or you may be fortunate enough to have a farmer near you who grows an old fashioned variety of long stemmed wheat specifically for thatching. ‘Corn’ is a generic…

Thatched Roof Ornaments

There is no finer sight than to see a newly thatched roof glowing in the sunshine topped, if you are fortunate, with a stylish straw ornament that gives a flourish, and seems to say “well, this is a fine piece of craftsmanship, to be sure” . It is many a year since hayricks and straw stacks were thatched. Rick ornaments took various forms – a cockerel or a bird, a cross or a crown, a boat, an apple or a…