Meeting 4 : Knotweed Paper + Pigment

“Botanists call it an invasive species. But aren't we all?”

— Teju Cole

Early spring you can find japanese knotweed popping up along the river, creak, and mountain spring lines, along roadways, growing through gravel, in disrupted then abandoned areas — this water gulping ‘invasive’ doubles in height per week until it towers high and leaves bush out like bamboo or river cane. However, knotweed snaps easily; it’s stalks are soft and a little squishy. It’s rhizomal root system is prized for its medicinal properties.

You can eat the shoots, make medicine from the plant, and you can also make great knotweed paper and coax out some beautiful colors from each part of this weed. Be warned though - it can sprout roots and spread from each node - from a small piece of it’s stem or leaf. When knotweed pieces big and small find their way to a creek or river it spreads quickly — and cannot be removed. So we have to learn to embrace and work alongside this resilient energy creator and producer. The bees and pollinators cannot get enough when white flowers sprout late in the summer and into early fall. It is a sight to be seen (and heard!) so don’t spray, they won’t go away - let’s work together with this misunderstood plant instead.

We (myself and Fiberhouse resident Cordy) brought our knotweed dye samples to share. The wool and cotton responded well to our initial knotweed leaf dye tests, yielding yellows and greens with the addition of a touch of iron. The kudzu fiber loved the stalk dye tests, and yielded a lovely pink/peach color. Before the rest of the group joined we cut up some more early growth knotweed for papermaking. We added washing soda (soda ash) along with water and let the mixture boil for 2 hours before blending to a pulp.

Rosalee pulled sheets of knotweed paper we blended up in the vitamix and Monika brought more cordage and fiber explorations to share. The plyed green cordage is from local yucca and the long silvery fiber below is from hibiscus stalks.After blending up the knotweed paper pulp we found long fiber remnants at the bottom of the blender. We were surprised to find such fine fibers (with so many possibilities!) in the mix. LB also brought co-products from the kudzu root starch processing she has been working on. We made kudzu root fiber paper as well.

See you in the weeds,

x Nica