Poplar bark/dogbane belt

[Hillbilly]

OK, to get some more topics going, here's an abo project: A finger-woven belt made from tulip poplar bark and dogbane cordage. comes in handy for holding up the ol' loincloth

[Calendargirl]

so Hillbilly you just taunt us or do we get instructions?

[Justin Snyder]

That makes my eyes hurt just looking at it.  I can only imagine what my eyes would be doing after all that work.  It is a fine piece of work. Justin

[Calendargirl]

That makes my eyes hurt just looking at it.  I can only imagine what my eyes would be doing after all that work.  It is a fine piece of work. Justin

coming from a man that knows how to quilt!

[Pat B]

Steve, you surprise me more and more. I should have guessed as much from a real Hillbilly. Cool belt.   Pat

[Manager]

You put my knitting to shame...

[Hillbilly]

so Hillbilly you just taunt us or do we get instructions?

Probably just taunt you 
OK-simple instructions: Gather buttloads of dogbane stalks and ret buttloads of tulip poplar inner bark. Make it into about a mile of cordage. Weave it together until it looks like the pic 

[Marc St Louis]

Nicely made, Steve.  Buttload? .

Maybe the girls want a demonstration of the belt holding up your loincloth? 

[jamie]

im gonna make sure the foxfire people call ya for their next book. thats excellent. i have a buttload of inner bark all retted out too. maybe ill spin one up for the shirt i just finished. peace

[DanaM]

What size butt makes a load?

Cool belt, do they still say cool?

[Hillbilly]

The size of the "buttload" is directly proportional to the size of the butt that the belt goes around  Actually, I'll probably use this one as a quiver strap.
Jamie, I actually knew a few of the people interviewed in the Foxfire series. My dad's family comes from Rabun county, Georgia where the series was produced, and several of the interviewees lived near here. All the stuff in there was day-to-day life for my grandpa's generation. When I was a kid, most of my grandparents and great uncles/aunts were living just like the books show. That's how I learned a lot of the "primitive" stuff, following my grandpa and uncles around like a three-foot-tall shadow when I was a munchkin.

[jamie]

thats awesome. to be honest id rather spend my life doin chores like that and being "poor" then workin the way i do to give to the insurance gas and taxpeople and still bein broke. peace

[longfletch]

that looks awsome steve, great job! weaving pi$$es me off though this week i sat down and started weaving a pouch for a new sling, after 45 mins of making a tangled wad of cord, i took a big stick and beat the ground screaming (oogabooga moment). then i cut it off and attached a leather pouch like the REST of my slings
bryan

check it out woven pouch,

http://www.slinging.org/49.html

[DBernier]

Hillbilly when you come over this way I "need" you to stop by and help identify some of the trees to see if I have any of that inner bark. I wouldn't know a tulip poplar from a concrete post.     Help!!!! I need to make a strap similar to that for my split cane quiver. That is awesome. Thanks for showing it.

Dick

[richpierce]

How do you process the tulip opolar inner bark?  Do you ret it or use lye or use it unprocessed?