Old postcards revisited April 17, 2008
This postcard is a replica of an old photograph. Copyright National Museum of Ireland. What bothers me about it is the caption - Spinning and carding wool. The spinning part is all right but the carding term is incorrect, isn’t it? The woman in the foreground is beating flax, isn’t she? And isn’t there a special term other than beating for this stage of the process?
that’s exactly the postcard I complained about to the museum! and apparently they have taken my comment to heart, because the curator contacted me - and the cards were gone from the shelves last time I checked!
I thought it might be a good idea for a workshop in the olg - flax, from growing to finished product - and everything in between…. but it does take a lot of preparation!
and yes, there is a specialist term for it - scutching…. I am going to sow my flax seeds soon to try to grow my own fibre supply (due to lack of fibre animals - apart from three dogs