Local Artist Brings Ancient Straw Art to Morgan Hill
Story submitted to the Morgan Hill Times
Live Oak High School alumna Christine Busch Swanson has been weaving with locally grown Morgan Hill wheat for 15 years. Christine grew up on a walnut orchard in Paradise Valley on Oak Glenn Avenue. After moving to Santa Clara to be closer to high tech work, Christine often visited her parent’s farm to help out. On one of those visits she was helping her father Frank Busch cut wheat using his antique John Deere farm equipment. The wheat in the field had a natural beauty and Christine wanted to find something creative to do with it so she did some research and found a lady in Berkeley, California, Nan Rohan, who taught wheat weaving. Christine made the trip up to Berkeley and took a few classes, got a few books on the subject and started making creations out of wheat. She is now one of 150 or so straw artists in North America. Christine has won several awards with her straw art and has a few pieces in the American Museum of Straw Art in Long Beach, California. (www.strawartmuesum.org)
The art of “wheat weaving” has a long history to it. It has been traced back over 8,000 years to the Egyptians, who were weaving with it long before they knew it was a food source. Straw art has been found on every continent and culture around the world which consumed grains. In early European cultures during a time when farmers were more at risk from the whims of Mother Nature, farmers believed that spirits lived in the grain. Farmer’s took great care to capture and preserve these spirits so at harvest time, the last sheaf of wheat to be cut was set aside and from the straw, traditional symbols were woven from the wheat and hung in the home to keep the spirits safe during the winter. In the spring, the woven objects were returned to the field, usually plowed into the soil, thus returning and reawakening the spirits back to the earth to ensure another bountiful harvest.
As harvesting became mechanized, wheat weaving all but died out. It was revived in England and on the East Coast in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s for the straw hat industry. For these flat hat “plaits” usually prisoners and children would spend the day weaving the straw into long plaits and this plait was used to make the hats. A bit earlier, during the 1300’s straw was also split and twisted together to make golden straw thread that was used in several gowns, so we wonder about the story of Rumpelstiltskin and weaving straw into gold, because this was done with the straw to make the golden threads in these gowns.
Wheat weaving or straw art did not come to the U.S. until the 1970’s. It was a craft introduced in Kansas.
Christine belongs to the National Association of Wheat Weavers and the California Straw Art Guild. Both organizations are working to preserve this beautiful and unusual art. Wheat itself conveys many meanings including good luck, love, abundance, hope friendship and fertility. With straw art, the items represent people’s desires in life from ancient time to the present.
If you’re interested in wheat weaving or want to purchase a piece, Christine’s straw art will be featured at the Machado Craft Fair on December 1st. The Fair runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Historic Machado School, 15130 Sycamore Drive in Morgan Hill. There will be more booths this year, giving visitors a wide variety of handmade crafts, jewelry, baby gifts, floral arrangements and one-of-a-kind gift items from which to choose while enjoying the charm of the original 1895 building. A portion of the sales will benefit the Machado School Heritage Society (MSHS).
Several vendors will also donate some of their proceeds to local causes, while teens get in on the fun as well by running their own booths. The latter includes last year’s very popular beeswax candle and honey booth run by a young South County 4-H Club member who used her proceeds to pay off her beekeeping equipment loan. The youth members of the San Martin 4-H Club will have refreshments available.
Sales proceeds donated to the Machado School Heritage Society will help maintain the original 1895 school building, continue the Henk Marselis Memorial Scholarship and provide support for the Machado School Field Trip Program, which hosts more than 1,000 local elementary school children each year. The next public event at Machado School is the 10th annual Caroling by Candlelight program hosted by the MSHS at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 23.
