Penny Maltby, visual artist and maker.

Based in Oxford, Penny Maltby is a maker with a background in textiles and a passion for materials and Heritage Crafts. She is interested in highlighting the value of craft and the transference of skills to next generations and new makers. Her main focus is on the endangered crafts of the straw world such as straw working, hat plaiting, Corn Dolly/Harvest Trophy making, rope making, straw thread embroidery and passementerie. Her work reflects how the use of this humble material has shaped us, our landscapes, our communities and our Cultural Heritage.

Customs and celebrations surrounding the harvest of crops have been celebrated for centuries across the world and are symbols intended to encourage the fertility of crops, preserve the corn spirit so that it would remain active. Corn Dollies are also referred to as Harvest Trophies and Harvest Tokens. Traditionally they would be plaited and made from the last sheaf of the harvest and often plaited in situ. They would be bought from the field, perhaps included as part of the Harvest Supper celebrations or kept in the farm until the following year. They can take the form of a loose human shape such as a maiden or a plaited trophy. Sometimes these may have been burnt or ploughed back into the land.

‘Corn’ is a term for the family of grains which includes barley, oats, wheat and rye. ‘Corn dolly’ is a wide-ranging term which includes figures, love tokens, crosses, Scandinavian star designs, and Far Eastern shrine dolls made from ‘corn’ straw. Techniques used in the craft include tying, plaiting, weaving and marquetry. The corn dolly was originally an object used in rites and rituals, and in many parts of the world it was believed that the ‘Corn Goddess’ lived in the crop and died when it was harvested. Images of the Goddess, or other talismans, were woven from the last sheaf to be reaped and carefully preserved to ensure an abundant crop the following year. By the twentieth century, corn dollies had lost their ritual associations, and from the 1950s there was a concerted effort to preserve the craft of corn dolly making.