Raffia
- Thread starter Krone
- Start date
Wires_Guy_wires
Imperial Masterpiece
Early winter or late winter.
During dormancy, the cambium of juniper retracts and it's attached better to the tissue below. In active growing seasons like spring and summer, they separate more easily.
If your winters are wet and not that cold, consider using rubber/gummi tape/bicycle inner tyre. Raffia can hold a lot of water and it can activate dormant root tips on the trunk.. I've had a couple junipers produce roots on the trunk when I left raffia on. Some people remove it a couple weeks after they made their bends. I don't know how they do that.
I switched to rubber this year and I'm quite happy with how good it closes wounds by being flexible and pushing tissue back onto the trunk. Raffia wrapping takes some practice and when making extreme bends, it does create spots where there is little contact. I blame that entirely on my poor raffia wrapping skills, but with rubber I don't have that issue at all.
During dormancy, the cambium of juniper retracts and it's attached better to the tissue below. In active growing seasons like spring and summer, they separate more easily.
If your winters are wet and not that cold, consider using rubber/gummi tape/bicycle inner tyre. Raffia can hold a lot of water and it can activate dormant root tips on the trunk.. I've had a couple junipers produce roots on the trunk when I left raffia on. Some people remove it a couple weeks after they made their bends. I don't know how they do that.
I switched to rubber this year and I'm quite happy with how good it closes wounds by being flexible and pushing tissue back onto the trunk. Raffia wrapping takes some practice and when making extreme bends, it does create spots where there is little contact. I blame that entirely on my poor raffia wrapping skills, but with rubber I don't have that issue at all.
Shibui
Imperial Masterpiece
Live wood is already wet. It won't get any wetter by wrapping with raffia. Raffia or other wrapping does not make the branch flexible. It holds the wood fibres together so they don't crack too much when you bend. If it does crack a bit the wrapping holds the tissues close together and it will usually heal up like grafting.
Raffia is traditional but more modern materials are being used instead. Rubber bicycle tube, PVC electrical tape, jute webbing, vet wrap and other substances. I live in a rural area and have also used hay bale string.
Raffia is traditional but more modern materials are being used instead. Rubber bicycle tube, PVC electrical tape, jute webbing, vet wrap and other substances. I live in a rural area and have also used hay bale string.
Forsoothe!
Imperial Masterpiece
It is the "netting" effect that makes raffia or anything else work, just like wrapping a cigarette in the cellophane outsides of a cigarette package. That allows you to tie a cigarette in a knot without breaking the white paper of the cigarette. It prevents the paper from tearing by stretching it beyond the breaking point by distributing the forces equally making the cigarette bend into a smooth radius instead of a series of kinks. Every tenth grader knows that.
Wires_Guy_wires
Imperial Masterpiece
I remember Mauro Stemberger doing extreme bends over the course of weeks. He said that this allows the wood to stretch a little and it should prevent breaking some more compared to doing bends in a single day.
leatherback
The Treedeemer
Big bends.. Raffia..
The raffia helps making the wood more pliable. In fact, some well known European artists will cover the segments to be bend with a wet towel and leave it in place for 24 hrs. Whether this is only for the bark or more deeply I am not sure.
The taping / raffying ensures that any wood fibres that break, do not break out of the bark. And with this, you contain the consistency of the branch which does not break.
Taking your time allows the wood to stretch/relax allowing for a further bending. I normally do bends over an hour or so, allowing 5-10 minutes between sub-bends. If I reach the max reach I wait a few days and often you can bend a little more before it breaks.
The raffia helps making the wood more pliable. In fact, some well known European artists will cover the segments to be bend with a wet towel and leave it in place for 24 hrs. Whether this is only for the bark or more deeply I am not sure.
The taping / raffying ensures that any wood fibres that break, do not break out of the bark. And with this, you contain the consistency of the branch which does not break.
Taking your time allows the wood to stretch/relax allowing for a further bending. I normally do bends over an hour or so, allowing 5-10 minutes between sub-bends. If I reach the max reach I wait a few days and often you can bend a little more before it breaks.
What is that?
