Hanna Varga taught me how to process and twist fibres; since then I've been using hoary willow herb, dandelion, rhubarb and daffodil to make lengths of cordage.

I took some fibres to Berlin and, while living next to a lake and studying at @thomasprattkicentre, made 6 or 7 metres of finely woven twine.
I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, perhaps a handfasting rope, but alas, no; so I kept it until a purpose presented itself.

In the winter of 2024-25, I slip a disc in my lower back (for the second time in 2 years). Apart from being fucking painful, it slows me right down. I use walking to recover, going a little further each day, and during one of my walks, find a backbone of some small creature, bleached white and lying on some sand dunes, and with some of the vertebrate discs still visible.

I find myself wanting to turn the found backbone into a necklace. Rather than tie a simple knot at the top, I decide to decorate it with some shibari-style decoration using the string I wove in Berlin. As I tie/weave the string, I realise I am securing, fastening, supporting the backbone—holding it together.

And so the circle completes itself.

Shibari Skeleton
Berlin, Sept 2025
Materials used: Hoary Willow Herb fibres & a Portuguese backbone from a sand-dune-dwelling creature