GatewayCrafts is an Erasmus+ project proposed by Saber Fazer, with CRU Creative Hub and Materahub as partners. Learn more about our project.

Before starting, let us tell you why we created this course and how to use it!

What’s in a name? The scientific name of the flax plant - Linum usitatissimum - meaning “the most useful”- encapsulates its longstanding utility and importance throughout the ages.

What does the flax plant look like? What is it made of? How does it grow?

Did you know that there are thousands of different flax plants? Let’s learn about the different varieties so that you choose the right one for your crop.

Linen is what we are looking to get out of this. Let’s learn about some of linen’s characteristics.

Flax is quite an easy crop to grow but only if you know the plant’s needs and preferences in advance.

Before you start, you must make the right choice regarding the flax variety to use.All flaxseed looks very similar from the outside, but as you know now, different varieties will give you different results.

Let’s take a moment to check all the conditions and list the tools you’ll need to grow and process your flax.

The day we select to do the flax sowing is one of the most important days of the process, as it will mark the beginning of the cycle. So, how do we choose the right time to sow our flaxseed?

When should you start? How long does it take? This timeline will help you understand the timings of flax growth and processing.

Soil preparation is one of the most important phases when producing linen fibre. Let’s get it right.

There are a few points to consider when sowing flax: plant density and technique. Let’s see how it is done.

Watching your flax plants grow is the easy part! Let us show you how your plants will grow and develop before harvest.

Approaching the end of its cycle, our flax crop should be completely mature. It should have lost its green colour and taken on a more yellowish hue. It’s time to harvest.

You will need the seed for next year’s crop, so let us show you how to collect your flaxseed.

Before we can obtain and process our linen fibre, we have to put our flax through the retting process, separating the textile fibre from the woody core.

Let’s dry our retted flax before proceeding to the next phase.

To extract the fibre, we will need to break the stalks. The woody part will break into small pieces by the action of a flax break, but the long and flexible fibres remain intact.

Scutching is how we separate the fibres from the wood shives, obtaining long linen fibres. This process can be done by hand, using a wooden scutching knife, or with a scutching machine (scutcher).

Heckling is the final step in linen fibre production and consists of combing the linen fibres. After heckling, fibres will be aligned and clean, ready to be spun into yarn.

Here is a convenient list of terms we use when talking about flax and linen.

Here you can access and download all these courses’ lesson in pdf format to print and share