Saturday, July 2, 2011

Making a Coracle

Last summer Jacob, my grandson, and I decided to make a Welsh coracle, a small boat of ancient design, traditionally made of willow branches and animal hide.  We searched out directions for making it, our favorite being Francis Galton's 1860 book The Art of Travel, in which he says in step 3:  "Kill two bullocks and skin them" , with no details on that operation.  (We found newer, less grisly alternatives for the boat's skin in The Whole Earth Catalog and in several YouTubes.)  Above is Jacob seeing if the boat would float in shallow water in a small river near my house.


Above is a page from our notebook.  We first spent a lot of time finding sufficient willow to make the boat.  My friend Maggie Cheney told me about a friend of hers' pond that had willow trees growing along the banks, so we went out there with Maggie one evening last summer and trimmed around 30 long branches and brought them to my house.  We peeled all the willow and saved the bark to make willow paper, then stood the branches up to dry.  Later in the summer we had to soak the branches to make them flexible.  They were so long that we improvised a trough for soaking by lining the ditch in front of my house with a big piece of plastic and filling it with water.  After a couple of weeks the branches were flexible.
We stuck the ends of the branches in the ground in an oval shape and wove a large basket as shown in the first notebook on the right side of the page.  After the basket was secured with tarred twine at the joinings, we made a seat out of ash wood and lashed it into place.  Then last week we covered the boat frame with heavy canvas, as shown above.  We sewed it in place and then painted it with roofing tar to waterproof it.  Two coats seemed to do the job.  So then we set out for the river with the little boat tied to the roof of my VW.   The river is walking distance, but the boat was a little awkward for us to carry down a hill and along a road, so we drove.

When we got to the river we had to carry the boat down a trail until we found a good place to put it in.  Then came the big moment of seeing if it was waterproof and if it floated, and finally, if it could hold us, and most importantly, if we could balance in it.  The above photo shows Jacob enjoying the boat. 

14 comments:

  1. This is amazing. It shows fortitude and focus on long term goals. Fabulous.

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  2. What a "eureka" moment! Fabulous job from the research to the building of the actual boat! Very inspiring

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  3. This is a memory that will last a lifetime. What fun!

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  4. Gwen, you give *making crafts at grandmother's house* a whole new meaning. :-)

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  5. I'm really really lucky to have children around who like to do projects with me!

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  6. What an amazing Grandma you are, precious!

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  7. Gwen! This is fabulous. You are so lucky to have a partner to play with. So beautiful.

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  8. You created so many memories for your grandson. What an adventure! I'd like to see the picture of gramma in the boat!
    best, nadia

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  9. Jacob is MUCH cuter in the boat than I am!

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  10. Gwen that image is totally magical, like a fairy child sitting in a curled leaf.

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  11. Judy- what a perfect description! thanks!

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  12. I am so impressed! What a great, grand project to share. Safe and happy aquatic adventuring in your coracle.

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  13. I was going to leave a really cute comment but Judy beat me to it! Ahhh, thank goodness for the willingness of children...

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  14. What a fascinating blog post! I really enjoyed it! How wonderful that all the different things came together for the coracle to happen for Jacob (and you!).

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