DIY: Making Natural Rope

My friend Bort came by yesterday and taught me how to make rope from the Yucca plants in my yard! Making natural rope is not hard once you get the hang of it- it's just a magical formula of twisting it the right way and oh so tightly... and you will pick up speed as you go along.

You can use the Yucca plant to make some really strong rope, but there are tons of other trees and foliage you can use such as the poplar tree. In the pic below Bort is cutting some of the dried leaves to make strips that will twist into rope...

Once you have your dried leaves you will want to rub it down over your fingers to 'break up' the fibers, then make strips by pulling pieces as shown below. You can pull bigger pieces if you want thicker rope, and small pieces for dainty rope.

To begin your piece of rope you will need two long strips that you pulled from the plant, holding them together evenly.

Then twist the two strips together tightly as shown above... but keep twisting the small segment between your fingers tighter and tighter... Till it starts to buckle and forces itself to make a loop.

Hold your loop between your fingers, and then begin to twist the two strips furthest away from yourself. Twist them AWAY from yourself (this is crucial and does something magical which I can't explain)...

Take the little twist and cross it over towards yourself, then repeat the twisting & crossing over and over.

You repeat this pattern until your rope is done. When adding in new strips, simply twist them into the existing rope very tightly and continue on. My rope shown below had several pieces twisted in and is still super strong!!! :)

It can hold rocks!!!! Yay Baby!

Thanks to Bort, pictured here swinging from a tree vine - for being so patient and teaching me this awesome skill.

Check out the VIDEO with more pictures and instructions on how to make rope HERE on youtube or HERE on One True Media!

xoxo