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| Drying out |
Its cooler, the nights are closing in on the days and the bric-a-brac season in the Charente is, thankfully, coming to an end.
It has been a good summer for the local
‘brocanteurs’ wanting to offload their abused traditional
straw baskets and now I have more than I really
know what to do with in the basket sanctuary. There is no need for me to seek
these baskets out at bric-a-bracs as they seem to find me quite easily. I can
hear them calling out to me from under tables
or behind boxes, it’s a plaintive attention seeking cry and I appear to be the
only person that hears it. Sometimes I try to walk
past them, but the cry just gets louder and more distressing. Occasionally
they use their charms on me and it’s as though I have caught the eye of an
attractive stranger across a crowded room. I look away but within minutes I
cannot resist looking back to find them working their spell.
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| I resisted this one because he was trying too hard and I wasn't going to be fooled by the so-called 'lid'! |
Each basket is
different, with its own personality. There are solid, rough, rustic ones made by
impatient people with big hands. And there are fine ones made with thinly pared
strips of ronce (bramble) and stitches so close together that the maker must
have spent a whole winter making it. I try not to buy two the same shape or
form but sometimes I do, because each one was made by a different person and they
all have their individual
characteristics.
When I bring them home I give them a good dusting with a
bristle brush, then a hoover, followed by a bath in cold rain water, as they
are always filthy, then they are left to dry
naturally in a warm sunny spot. It may not be
an orthodox conservation technique but they seem to like it and come out shiny
and warm and smelling like hay. Sometimes they have evidence of woodworm, but if
the suction and drowning haven’t killed any live larvae then
drying out the basket properly will usually make them move home because they prefer
moist materials.
The injuries will take longer to deal
with as there are feet and bottoms missing and cuts around the mouths. At the
moment I see two options. They can either be stitched back together in the
traditional way, with straw and split ronce,
or they can be repaired with other materials in
such a way that it draws attention to their scars and makes the viewer see them
differently and not just as old baskets repaired. These 'old' baskets were young
once and served their families well for many years, now they deserve to be respected
and celebrated and given some tlc because they have tales
to tell us of past lives we can hear no other way.
