What is the history of wheat weaving?

The origins of this craft lie in ancient times. Straw has been used to fashion useful items and beautiful decorations. Ever since man began to cultivate grains for food wild grains and grasses were available for weaving. Can't be found exact date or place of origin for this art form but it is believed it was practiced as early as 8,000 years ago.

Many early cultures who relied upon ample harvests for their sustenance believed the fertility of their fields could be captured in the last sheaf of harvest. This last sheaf was sometimes decorated as a doll to be revered at harvest festivals or woven into tokens kept safe in the home until the following spring. Then, at planting time, the grains from these tokens were returned to the fields. This released the fertility back onto the fields to insure yet another abundant harvest.

In the last century, more and more artisans have come to realize that folk art has never been just purely decorative and that it is time to rebuilt the unity of aesthetic form and function. They have come to recognize that functional "designs" adumbrated, in some sense, the fitted parts that would form the basis of assembly-line technology.
Artisans who identify with the new folk art revival explore various facets of the boundless world of forms. They do crafts than anyone can learn; and they execute works requiring consummate skill and expertise. They look for the form latent in organic material, and do no more than help it to surface; alternately, they impose upon the material their own studied design. They give form to things, and they create things; they make everyday objects, and they make works of art.

Wheat Weaving is an art form that has been practiced for generations in any civilization that grew a crop and harvested the seeds.  Legends and folk lore abound, telling us  that to be given a straw plait, wheat weaving or corn dolly is to be given prosperity, happiness, luck and health.  Ancient peoples believed the spirit of the seed was an entity that withdrew as the crop was gathered and lived in the last stalks of grain in the field.  So they created items of beauty to hang in a place of honor until the spring seeding festival, when it was cast back to the soil.  If the decoration was made well and treated with respect the spirit that lived there would bring a good harvest at the end of the season.

Wheat straw creations last for decades.  Many items in museums are over a hundred years old.  Not as fragile as they look, easy to mail, delightful to own and an accomplished gift, this is the modern wheat weaving. No need for preservatives or colors.  The straw is a thing of beauty with a texture and color as subtle as the land on which it grows.

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