Heartland

Wichita Formoso

By Amber Fraley

The art of wheat weaving is a multicultural craft that goes back as far as ancient Egypt and has been practiced for hundreds of years across Europe and in Mexico. Today, a dedicated group of wheat weavers is keeping the ancient art alive with locally grown material.

Mary Thrower, a retired magistrate judge for the 28th Judicial District in Kansas, is one of those artists. She began the craft in the early 1980s when she was introduced to it by her mother, a dedicated wheat weaver who sold much of her work to earn extra money for the family.

“She continued weaving up until her death in 2016,” Thrower says, adding that her sister and a niece are also carrying on her mother’s tradition. Thrower continues her mother’s legacy as an artist and advocate for the craft, having served as president of the Kansas Association of Straw Artists (KASA), as well as being the current president of the National Association of Wheat Weavers (NAWW).

Thrower explains that the term “wheat weaving” is a misnomer. “We call it wheat weaving, but it’s really not weaving—a true weave goes in and out—this is actually plaiting.” To make wheat ready for plaiting, or braiding, it must be soaked so that the stem is pliable, from ten minutes to overnight, depending on the variety and stiffness of the wheat. There are about 200 types of plaits a wheat weaver can learn.

Thrower finds the repetition of plaiting to be calming. She often makes heart-shaped wreaths—a common, and old, tradition in wheat weaving, as wheat wreaths were traditionally hung on the hearth to celebrate the harvest.

Another Kansas artist, Dianne Gardner, learned to weave around 1988 and became a founding member of KASA. Gardner is continually working on a new wheat creation. She crafts complicated pieces, some very large, by using a variety of plaiting techniques and marquetry, which involves opening the straw, flattening it, and gluing it to a backing such as cardstock. She also likes to plait ornate crosses, hearts, dolls, and wreaths.

On her farm near Formoso, about twenty miles north of Beloit, Gardner and her husband grow a small patch of specialty wheat for weaving, in addition to the market wheat they produce. These special weaving varieties, Turkey Red and Larned, have extra-long stems and reach a height of up to five feet on average. The Gardners hand cut and bundle these varieties, providing much of the wheat-weaving materials to KASA members. “I realized there were getting to be a limited number of places to get weaving wheat for people who don’t live on a farm,” she explains.

Wheat for weaving can be left its natural golden color, bleached with peroxide to give it a bright, light-yellow sheen, or dyed another color after bleaching. To introduce contrast, wheat weavers may mix varieties that differ in color from yellows to reds, while the hair-like strands on the heads of wheat— the beards—can vary in hue from golden to blue or even black.

KASA meets four to six times per year, often in the central part of the state from which many of the KASA members hail. “Anybody is welcome to come, even if you’ve never done it before,” says Thrower. “We’re very active here in Kansas.” The meetings usually feature a member sharing a wheat-weaving plait or technique.

To learn more about wheat weaving in Kansas or to join a meeting of artists, contact the Kansas Association of Straw Artists by email at mthrower50@gmail. com. To find a list of Kansas straw artists with works for sale, visit kswheat.com/ consumers/straw-artists.

Kansas hosts the annual conference of the National Association of Wheat Weavers, April 27–29, 2023, in Wichita’s Drury Plaza. For more information about attending the conference or wheat weaving in general, visit nawwstraw.org.