ORKNEY has a long tradition of furniture made from black oat straw – but for Orcadian ex-pat Tom Rendall, now living near Pitcaple, Inverurie, getting hold of that raw material has become a real labour of love.
Tom's originally from the small Orkney island of Westray, and while he's been away from Orkney for over 50 years, he still has strong ties with many relatives there. He well remembers the straw backed Orkney chairs in folks houses when he was young, and took a keen interest when his dad made baskets and a small chair for his grandson with the traditional technique using Orkney black oat straw.
Back in 2000, when Tom first decided he'd make a chair for each of his three daughters, he arranged for a relative to send straw from Orkney by ferry. He made a chair and started another but work and life got in the way and the second chair was abandoned. In 2021 with more time on his hands he finished that second chair – 21 years after he started – then started and finished the third daughter's chair with the original straw that was by now over 20 years old.
Another batch of straw was sent down from Orkney last year for further projects, and had to be cleaned as it comes in shafe form straight off the binder – and this time Tom kept all the seeds.
Neighbouring friend JK McKenzie, of Milton of Inveramsay Farm in Inverurie, was approached to rent a small corner of his field and the black oat seeds were sown. There were a nervous few weeks waiting to see if anything would germinate but it grew as well as the barley that filled the rest of the park. The only hazard was a young deer that decided the oats was where it wanted to lie at night flattening a patch, but it still left plenty for Tom to cut down with the scythe on a few bonny hot August days.
It was initially left to dry in stooks, but with rain expected, it is now stored in the garage drying out ready for processing into more of Tom's traditional Orcadian straw creations.
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