My name is Joanne B Kaar. I live Dunnet
village, on Dunnet Head in Caithness. With viewsto the village of Brough, where I grew up. The Pentland Firth and the
Orkney Island of Hoy are in the distance. In 2011 Bob Frith, the artistic director of
Horse and Bamboo theatre in Lancashire contacted me as they were planning to
develop a play about Angus MacPhee, and they needed costumes and props and
wondered if I could help with this.Angus was known as the ‘weaver of grass’.I had seen his incredible work while it as
on display in Stornoway many years ago. Angus was a crofter. He lived in South Uist, but spent almost 50 years
in Craig Dunnain psychiatric hospital in Inverness. He chose not to speak,
instead he made garments from grass and leaves growing in the hospital grounds,
twisting the plantsinto a rope or
simmans. A traditional technique he would have learnt at home in Uist.When he’d finished making,Angus just discarded them and started another
one.It was fortunate that Joyce Laing
OBE discovered Angus and saved some of his work.I made plans to start research and visit
Joyce in Pittenweem, Fife, to take a closer look at the grass garments made by
Angus. Exactly how Angus made his garments was a
mystery Joyce wanted to solve and.I’ve plenty of grass in my field to
experiment with! The grass ‘weavings’ made by Angus are now
old and fragile. With the help of my
husband Joe, who made a sketch of the construction bylooking at a patch of more open weave, and
the information from Joyce with her first had experience of seeing Angus work,
I made notes and took measurements in my sketchbook.Next, with a ball of cotton string, I made a
few test pieces. The construction
techniques Angus use were not traditional to the UK, in his isolation, with
grass, hands and time, Angus ‘invented’ and perfected his methods.Back home, I drew out a full size paper
template to work from. Starting at the waistline, I made a grass rope to fit
the width, then, by opening up the rope at regular intervals,I made a series of loops, threading the grass
rope in and out of the gaps.I’m using dried grass a this will help hold
the twist in the rope.Using a looping technique,I worked upwards towardsthe neck of the garment, the same direction
as in the original. The loops were small and pulled tight at the
waistline, getting larger towards the chest.I used my fingers as a gauge and pulled the rope to the size I
wanted.Whilst keepingthe same number of loops in each row,
thegarment widened at the chest, because
each individual loop was bigger. This made a flatsection for the front of the garment.The arms were to be added later.Working with a short length was easier, as
didn’t have to pull so much rope through the loops. When I ran out of rope, I
simply made it longer by twisting in more grass.The cuffs of the sleeves and base of Angus’s
garment were deliberately frilly.The
loops on these partswere too matted confusing
to understand howthey were made.So I decided to use the same looping technique
for everything as this was the only one I was sure he had used. Working from the original waist band, I made two large loops into every one in the
row before – this instantly made it
wider and uneven. Working from the waistline down, I followed the paper
template and adjusted the loop size to complete the front side.Making the back of the garment was
easier.I started with a waistband as
before, butat the end of each row, I
looped through the sides of the front piece, connecting the two halves together
as I worked back and forth, leaving gaps for the sleeves and neck.The construction technique is easier to see
on these larger loops. The garment was getting quiet heavy, so I
made the sleeves separately.Again,
starting with a rope I made a series of loops, but this time I tied it into a
circle, the same diameter as the sleeve, working in the round, not two flat
pieces. This was stitched with a grass rope to the main body section. It’s difficult to see on the original garment
if the sections were made in the round, or sewn together later. I used a
combination of both.The sleeves attached and only the neck to
do.I worked this in the round, picking
up loops from the back and front of the garment until it was finished. The looping techniques Angus used are found
in many other culturesincluding those
used by indigenous people of Australian. Socks made more than 800 years
ago,using the same looping technique
have been discovered in a cave in Arizona, made from combed yucca plant, with
fragments of feathers to make them more comfortable.I went on to make grass garments for the
Horse and Bamboo theatre, which toured to rave reviews and sell out shows in
2012 and 2013. I have also made full
size replica garments including the iconic grass jumper, trousers with pockets
and belt and many many shoes. My replicas are now held in collections with
Glasgow Museums as part of the Art Extraordinary collection, along with Angus’s
originals;Whitworth Art gallery
Manchester in their outsider art collection as part of arts and health;
Northampton shoe museum; Craftspace Birmingham’s outsider craft collection.I continued to develop and research related
techniques which have been found in the uk – nalbinding (knotless netting), a
technique once used by Norse cultures, using wool to make a dense fabric for
garments including socks, hats and shoes.This predates knitting and is a more complicated series of loops, with
many different variations.I combined
local plants with nalbinding to make contemporary artwork. I have notebooks with diagrams and photos
detailing many of Angus’s grass garments, waiting to be made.
