Soft launching. More makers all summer.Soft launching with our founding makers. More arriving through the summer.
Soft launching. More makers all summer.Soft launching with our founding makers. More arriving through the summer.
The Lovers' Knot is one of the smaller Harvest Tokens in the tradition, and one of the most direct. Two readings exist for it. The first: that agricultural workers wore tokens like this at the annual hiring fairs, as a badge of trade, the way you might recognise a tradesman now by the tools clipped to a belt.
The second is the one most people repeat. At the end of the harvest, a young farm lad would plait a token and give it to his sweetheart. If she returned the feeling, she wore it over her heart. If she didn't, she didn't. As a piece of folk shorthand it is hard to beat.
Lucy plaits this version by hand from heritage straw and adds a short cotton ribbon loop so it can be hung from a hook, a beam, or a Christmas branch. Roughly 12cm long with a 6cm ribbon loop.
The Lovers' Knot is one of the smaller Harvest Tokens in the tradition, and one of the most direct. Two readings exist for it. The first: that agricultural workers wore tokens like this at the annual hiring fairs, as a badge of trade, the way you might recognise a tradesman now by the tools clipped to a belt.
The second is the one most people repeat. At the end of the harvest, a young farm lad would plait a token and give it to his sweetheart. If she returned the feeling, she wore it over her heart. If she didn't, she didn't. As a piece of folk shorthand it is hard to beat.
Lucy plaits this version by hand from heritage straw and adds a short cotton ribbon loop so it can be hung from a hook, a beam, or a Christmas branch. Roughly 12cm long with a 6cm ribbon loop.
Lucy Hook-Child plaits corn dollies and harvest tokens in heritage straw from her studio in Layer de la Haye, Essex. Two of her third great-grandaunts were straw plaiters in Belchamp Walter in the 1850s. She is one of the makers keeping this Red List craft alive today.
