More on the Steuchlein Front

[hsifeng]

My friend Pax pointed out to me that the overall shape of the Italian Blazo is very similar to the shape of a German Steuchlein in many ways.  He suggested I do some internet searching on the subject to see if I could find anything telling on this similarity.

 

Damn him. (*grin*)

 

The very first site that popped up was this one , and it reminded me all over again that I have been curious about the possibility of wooden ‘Wulst’ structures for some time. This curiosity comes to me at least in part because I seem to recall that the term ‘Wulst’ is universally used to describe the understructure of a wide variety of linen hats for German women in the 16^th C, including the HUGE ‘Nürnberg Church Hats’ (Sturtz).

 

Having made ‘stuffed linen roll’ versions of the Wulst in multiple sizes, I can say that the larger ones would be difficult to place as far back as they are portrayed without *some* sort of caged frame to support them. In my very first Steuchlein, I took care of this issue by making a ‘fez’ of buckram, reinforcing the end with a coffee canister lid and putting the roll on it – the result was perfect looking, but lacked in the accuracy department.

 

Well, I have an event by a river coming up in November, perhaps I will gather some willow branches and ‘have at’ with some twine to see if I can craft something that would work….
 

Time to revive some of those ‘underwater basket weaving’ skills* I got at community college!

 

 

*I mean it, I really did take basket weaving as a part of an overall ‘fiber arts’ class at Fresno City College YEARS ago. We went to the river and got willow switches with weave with for part of a project and we ended up weaving them partially underwater to help them preserve their suppleness.