The flax field of Corredoura
Last saturday we went to the “Linhal”, a festivity where all the phases of production of Linen are performed by the Folclorical Group of Corredoura, in S.Torcato (Guimarães).
It happens once a year, in the first saturday of July, during the afternoon.
The records I have from this day are too superficial to honor a process that is very complex and long. In due time, I'll document each phase, but, until then, what you have here is a quick overview of the cycle of linen.
1. HARVESTING AND RIPPLING
The linen is sowed in March/April and it’s ready to be cropped in the beggining of July. Then, it’s pulled completely, gathered and taken to be rippled.
During the rippling, the linen is passed through teethed iron combs, to separate the seeds and leaves from the stalk. The seeds will be kept until next year, and the linen will be produced from the stalk, during the next phases.
2. SOAKING, SMASHING AND GRINDING
After the rippling, the linen is put underwater, for 9 days.
During this process, the outer layers of the stalk will rot, making it easier to extract the linen fiber.In the end, it will be taken out of the water, and left to dry for another 9 days.
Once the linen is dry, it will be smashed with a mallet, in order to break the woody part of the stalk (not photographed).
Next, it will be taken to the mill and grinded, breaking the woody stalk even more, making it easier to free the linen fiber.
3. SCUTCHING, HACKLING, SPINNING, SKEINING AND SWIFTING
By now, it’s necessary to separate the dry stalk from the fiber, and that’s when the scutching is made. Traditionally, it’s done by the women, that beat the linen with a wooden bat over a wood board, placed vertically.
Now that the linen fiber is finally free from the stalk, it will be treated to be spinned, during the next phases. To refine the linen a little more, the women proceed to the hackeling.
The linen is brushed through a hackling comb, with fine tooths, that eliminates the final stalk pieces and divides the linen in different lenghts.
The fibers are now prepared to be spinned by hand. The thread is then skeined, washed and finally ready to be weaved. After so much work, the linen thread is finally ready!
GRUPO FOLCLÓRICO DA CORREDOURA
Rua da Corredoura 14
4800-863, S.Torcato Guimarães - Portugal
+351 969 024 302 / +351 253 551 280
https://www.facebook.com/gfcorredoura/?locale=pt_PT
