Jenny Crisp at Westhope

I have a sort of basket making wish list, those makers who I would love to be taught by. Fortunately I have just about made it through my UK list, and recently a course with Jenny Crisp took me quite a big step toward that end.
Westhope is a wonderful gem hidden away in the Shropshire countryside very close to Craven Arms. It was established by Anne Dyer, a local land owner and big arts and crafts aficionado, www.westhope.org.uk. The place is filled with examples of hand crafts and fine art going back decades and for those who stay there is the added delight of locally sourced and lovingly cooked food.
Jenny is famous for her behind 3 in front of 5 to 7 border and French style scallomed work. Her work screams perfection and proves that contemporary willow work does not have to be solely abstract. She was taught by David Drew, who always maintains he taught himself, an iconic basket maker currently residing in a cave in France. He instilled in her the importance of selecting material and learning how it responds. You can see this in her work, a real affinity with the willow knowing what will work and how it should be placed.
On our course the making seemed to be secondary, although Jenny said it was important always to keep the image of what you were aiming at in ones mind, it was material and technique that dominated the two days. Making hoops, learning effective knife work, cutting scalloms, selecting material, tools, boards and stools, they became our focus. Magical, a cosy world of busy hands and the hypnotic smell of soaked willow.
Two days, I made one basket, and I would have been just as happy if I had made none, what a course, not just a tick on my list probably top of it.
If you see a course advertised with Jenny Crisp, go on it, www.jennycrisp.co.uk

Catching Up

Another busy few weeks and wow it is October. I remember saying to someone at the Dundee Flower and Food Festival to contact me in September about more plant supports and they replied 'it is September'.
A lot has happened which I hope to blog retrospectively, also my trusty old camera finally gave up last Friday so I have just ordered a new one. It arrived yesterday but I did not order a memory card, so a few more delays. Also a screaming cold at the moment is slowing things up, never mind the sleepy interior of the workshop is just the place to cough and sneeze to my hearts content.
Sniff,sniff.

Buy British Made Baskets

I do a lot of talks, just when I think there cannot be a Women's Rural Institute or local Garden Club that I haven't spoken at another one pops up. I also meet many people and often their baskets, so when the phone rings and I hear 'you did a talk for us last year and you said...about my basket',I go through a brief panic. I did vaguely remember this one, well I seemed to recall it was large but my diagnosis at the time was a bit patchy, however I had said it could be fixed, so fix it I will.
Fellow basket makers will be familiar with this one, imported Asian and East European made baskets that fall apart then come to us for repair. Most cannot be fixed, there is so little material or structure to work on that the only solution would be a new basket. Yet the owner has bought this basket in good faith as a functional container. This particular one was bought in Wiltshire, so the owner assumed it was made locally, Wiltshire conjures up an image of rural makers continuing age long crafts.
The handle liner consisted of two quite sturdy rods but they were only fixed into the border at a depth of an inch, result, a very wobbly handle. In many ways it was a heavy weaver pushed into the randing and taken around the liner which was taking the weight of the basket and its contents. New liner, a few rope handle weavers, I could not cover the whole handle as there was nowhere to place more handle weavers, and that was about as much as I could do. My concern is the new handle is stronger than the rest of the basket.
So to all of you out there thinking of buying a basket, please, please, please buy British and check it was made by a British maker. If you are not sure contact the Basketmakers' Association, www.basketassoc.org email:honsec@basketassoc.org or if you are in my neck of the woods, www.scottishbasketmakerscircle.org email:lochdoon@googlemail.com.

Dundee Flower and Food Festival

This year I had the opportunity to attend the Saturday and Sunday of the Dundee Flower and Food Festival on behalf of the Scottish Basketmakers' Circle. Fellow makers Catherine Davies and Pascal Carr did all the organising the rest of us Jane Wilkinson, Georgia Crook and myself just turned up. Oh and the 'Hairy Bikers' were there too but I don't think they were making baskets.
A great weekend, plenty of space and lots of folk to chat to, really enjoyed the evening with members of the Galgael. The Galgael are a charity based in Glasgow whose core activity is traditional boatbuilding and helping those primarily you have suffered with addiction problems. A great bunch of people and incredibly skilled wood workers, Fiona MacDougall has done a lot of basket making for them particularly in making baskets to fit into odd spaces in their boats.www.galgael.org
I did not see much of the Festival, too busy demonstrating plant supports and puting the world of basket making to rights with Catherine and Pascal.

It is obvious really

Seeing the wood for the trees and all that. I suppose doing something easily and effectively is the aim with most tasks. So when something goes repeatedly wrong and seems hard work there must be something I'm missing.
I have just been finishing a small creel for a friend who needs it for gathering kindling for the fire. It is the type with a curved rather than flat base. I have made these before but usually find it hard work fixing the the uprights into a curve for the base. The curve is okay but often they will kink as they are inserted into the weave. Having struggled away with this it finally struck me to kink the end of the rod to be inserted, then knock it in with the rapping iron. Obvious really and I am sure everyone else does this but it is news to me.
I also started twisting the willow earlier at the top knot stage rather than further on in the final randing. Found some photos in the Scottish Basketmakers' Circle archive of this kind of work. Conserving the history of our crafts is important.

New Caledonian Woodlands

Off to Edinburgh, not to the festival but out to Wester Hailes to the WHALE Centre. This is one of my indoor woodland workshops, I don't know why but all the workshops I have ever run for Caledonian Woodlands have been indoors. Andy has probably explained the reason for this several times but now I come to think of it I cannot remember the reason why. However the WHALE Centre is a new venue for the group and quite a splendid place it is too. Loved some of the art on the walls, must be a nice place to attend.
Guess what I was doing with the group today, yep, cornucopias. Is this all this man can do? Well it sort of follows seasons and also something a group can tackle in a few hours. I started doing them as a group activity last year with Branching Out and they seem to have stuck.
one thing we did do differently today was making rush plaits to weave in. I like people to experiment with the materials in these forms and wherever possible encourage them to plait or make cord from grasses and reeds. Being indoors I brought some field rush from home. A very pleasant contemplative day.

Make It Happen

What a great way to spend a weekend, making plant supports and fence panels in the now nationally famous Girvan Community Garden, otherwise known as 'Make it Happen',http://makeithappen.synthasite.com. The reason I say 'now nationally famous'is a reference to their recent appearance on the BBC Scotland Beechgrove Garden programme. There is no denying the power of the media as interest in the project has gone through the roof since they were featured. It also helped them push the project on a bit as Julie one of the organisers explained having to get the garden ready for filming really focussed the group to complete any outstanding work.
My remit was more leisurely, to teach the group how to make garden items using willow, and where better to start than plant supports. Blessed with increasingly hot weather one group wove away in log cabin while others chose the gazebo or even took to the open air. I kept the willow bundles moving as the sun chased them from one patch of shade to the next. Plant supports popped up everywhere each having that personal individuality which I love about these courses. We practised three different ties and everyone chose the one they felt best suited their structure.
That was day one and the sun decided to join us again for a second day. Most people worked outside on the Sunday and those returning for a second day got started on a hurdle. A bit more tricky than a plant support, keeping a hurdle straight takes a bit of practice. There were some good first hurdles and everyone braved the heat to start another. The plant support group soon had theirs finished and were eagerly looking for something else to make. They were soon hooked on cornucopias which kept them busy while the rest of us began clearing up.
Great group, excellent project if you are near Girvan pop in and say hello, oh and take your gardening gloves.

The Sun Shines at Culzean

After endless rainy days and a feeling of impending Autumn the sun came out. That cheered us all up but also made a trip to the coast even better.
Earlier in the year I did a talk for the Culzean Garden and Wildlife Club at the National Trust property Culzean Castle. The talk was organised by Katy Walker of the Ranger Service and took place in the purpose built lecture room. I do a lot of talks and some days I can get over enthusiastic, and this day was one of them. To me I had only got started but an hour had passed and I had only covered about half the things I intended saying. Well it must have gone well as I was invited back to do a demonstration.
As the day was so nice Katy decided to have the demonstration in a small garden space near the central courtyard. A good turn out by many of those who attended the first time and lots of questions. I still talked all the way through it but at least I made one round basket and half a plant support.

Branching Out

For the last three years I have been running workshops for a joint funded NHS/Forestry Commission project called 'Branching Out'. The project is for people who suffer from mental health problems and are either hospital or community based. The aim is to bring people into an outdoor environment where they can carry out some practical conservation and woodland management work as well as try some art/craft activities.
I tend to meet the group in a willow coppice so we can do some coppicing and make things from the materials we have harvested. At this time of year most of the material from the last season is used up so I tend to take in willow from my own stock. It is quite a shock coming back to the coppice for the first time since the end of March. Tons of new growth and just a completely different scene, I never realised the diversity of species on this precious little site. In fact while waiting for the group to arrive I just sat and sketched, soaking up all the shades of green and varied vegetation around me.
Today we made cornucopias, quite fitting really.

Kirkcudbright Art and Crafts Trail

Over the three days between 30th July to 1st August 2010 Kirkcudbright hosted the annual Arts and Crafts Trail. We are all familiar with open studio events usually spread out across a whole county or region but this is one where the venues can be walked between.
We popped in on the Saturday, largely to see the Glasgow Girls Exhibition, see it if you can the diversity and standard of work of these women is breath taking. Followed by our usual visit to the Tolbooth Arts Centre where we saw work by Liz Dagg and Amy Robb, we kept bumping into Amy for the rest of the day, and a smaller exhibition of Lisa Hooper's prints. Finally onto the trail proper.
It was like a multi-dimensional day out, there was the familiar Kirkcudbright we know and love then all these amazing studios, houses, closes, gardens and a whole other town hidden from general view. We were in the studio of Jessie M.King, who worked there at the beginning of the last century, looking at work by an artist who currently lives there. Along with the art, the houses and gardens were worth the visit in their own right.
I think we might go for the three days next year, amazing.
www.artandcraftstrail.co.uk

Odd Things for the Garden

Due to being really busy outside the workshop for the last few weeks I have had a build up of material which was destined for kindling. Too far gone for baskets, and too much to lose there was the usual in danger of wasting material panic.
As I have been doing a lot of plant supports for events recently, basically because I am out of basket stock and yet had events booked, I decided to work on a similar design but in a solid weave. Jane wants a new bird table and has been looking at the Danish basketmakers newsletters that always have lots of amazing bird tables. So somewhere between a new bird table, not quite finished, and a plant support, came a garden object.
The driver who delivered our new greenhouse saw it and said I should sell it to his company. Halls Garden Centre, are you interested?

Plant Supports and Panels

Last Tuesday was a workshop at my place, they don't happen as often as I would like but when they do it is great. For one thing the workshop gets a thorough clean out and I realise I have more space than I thought. It is also great to be able to pull out extra bits of material, soak as we go and just generally be a bit more spontaneous than relying on what has been packed in the van.

June and Andrea had contacted me regarding making garden items particularly plant supports. Andrea also needed a panel to keep the dog in check so we soon had the makings of a day's weaving.

The plant supports spiralled their way up followed by the frantic measurements of car space to get them home. By lunch time we had two quite impressive supports and two happy ladies.

After a pleasantly chatty lunch, sorry to be boring and drag everyone back to work, we set about making panels. A bit more challenging after the flow of the plant supports, however once everything was tied off and trimmed they looked great.

No photos, but a great day.

Highland Pony Creel

Pony creels have been in the air recently, well one phone call and two emails, which is significant for something that rarely comes up. The big problem with baskets is their lack of durability as a historical object. This is coupled with the fact that something that was common at one time does not get recorded in the same way as a rarer object. The result is that people know something existed but do not have an object to copy. So it was a real treat when I turned up at the last Scottish Basketmakers' Circle committee meeting to see Catherine and Pascal with a genuine pony creel.

Fortunately someone had had this creel in their possession and wanted a copy made. We were all over it, photographing, measuring, discussing weaves and generally admiring this wonderful piece of work. I look forward to Catherine and Pascal's copy.

It has also given me second thoughts as I have always imagined a Highland pony creel to look very similar to a peat creel. Back to the original dilemma, if you don't have an original to copy then it is down to guess work and supposition.

St Andrews Botanical Gardens

Several months ago the Scottish Basketmakers' Circle was invited to have an exhibition at St Andrews Botanical Gardens. The title was Celebrating Wonderful Willow and was put together by the tireless Anne Lightwood, potter and vice chair of the Friends of St Andrews Botanic Garden.

The exhibition ran for the whole of June and ended on the 25th July, during that time workshops were run by Stephanie Bunn and Jon Warnes. I joined Stephanie, Jon and environmental artist Kevin Blackwell on the final day to demonstrate making plant supports.

The images show some of Georgia Crooks work, willow triangles which include other woods and cordage. Georgia will be opening her studio during September as part of Perthshire Open Studios, www.perthshireopenstudios.com.

Bowls, spoons and Urban Roots

Time flies and to try and catch up on what has been happening since March is a bit daunting, I started making a list then gave up. So lets just take a trip back a week to last Thursday the final day of a six week course for Urban Roots.

Urban Roots is a community project based at Tory Glen on the south side of Glasgow, www.urbanroots.org.uk. The group describes itself as being 'committed to working with local people on projects that improve the environment, health and nutrition, work and environmental arts.' They certainly have a keen bunch of volunteers and judging by the numbers of people who popped in to see what we were up to are well placed in the local community. Last year I ran a woodland workshop course with them where we made shaving horses and a pole lathe so they could use the thinnings, from the wonderfully names Mall's Mire, to produce green wood products. This year they fancied a turn at spoon and bowl carving.

The original plan was to keep the numbers to eight participants for both balance of tuition and safety. However over the six weeks I lost count of how many people made an introductory mallet, fortunately we did keep a central group making spoons and bowls. I find making a mallet is a good way to introduce people to safe axe work. It makes the point of hand above, axe below, as well as body placement. As for exploring the axe it provides a continuous task and moves from chunky to fine hewing.

Just about everyone made a spoon and a bowl, some just spoons and others made a second bowl. The concentration was amazing and we could have carried on for hours after the session ended. In fact a couple of people took their pieces home and continued whittling. Mention has to go to Sylvia who worked her way through three different axes and had perfect command of each. Great course.

Living Willow Season Draws to a Close

Last day of March and it is snowing in Scotland, in fact it has been snowing here all day. Still getting requests for living willow work but I always stop on the 31st of March. I know some people push into April but I tend to be cautious, particularly on other people's projects.

It has been a good season, starting in November/December 2009 with the arches at Carmunnock. This was set up through Glasgow Greenspace and was carried out in partnership with Scottish Power (owned by a Spanish company). We had the office staff coppicing willow, digging holes and even got a few interested in making Christmas wreaths. In fact one woman disappeared into the coppice to emerge later with a whole stack of wreaths. Who says traditional crafts aren't exciting?

After a slow start in January due to snow and what seemed like permafrost I finally got started on the school projects. There were more nurseries than primaries this year and with an emphasis on tunnels. I revisited St Ninians which was one of the highlight projects of last year. Some of the Mums set loose on a 'twigwam' and did a wonderful job with a colourful random weave. Onthank was a favourite, nice design in a compact space, and the final project at Merrylee gave me a chance to create three spaces on a specially constructed hill in the school grounds. It helps to have a landscape architect as one of the parents, it had been destined to be a square section of tarmac.

The only disappointment was the golden eagle at Castlemilk High, designed by the pupils with willow they harvested themselves, it was going to be an exciting one. However the school is a PPP, (public, private, partnership) and the owners Amey Construction had not given permission. They are still thinking about it. Hopefully I can go back at the start of next season and with the help of the pupils make sure the eagle is landed.

The Swans Are Up

After two hectic days swinging about on scaffolding the swans are finally back on the Clyde.

Sleepless nights of how to support them on the cradles were added to by the belief I only had one day to put them up. It was only half way through Thursday that I found out there was a second day of scaffold hire if I needed it. That relief turned to rushed panic when the scaffolders announced they packed up early on a Friday.

So what was the panic about? Well basically each swan was made in four parts in the workshop, two wings, head, and tail, it was only when they were hoisted up to the cradles did they come together as a whole bird. There was still a lot of weaving to do once they were in place and not a lot of time to correct anything I was not happy with.

What was really nice was the reaction of the people who use the Saltings, dog walkers, pensioners, joggers, twitchers, they all said how glad they were to see the swans back up and how they had missed them. So there you go for public art, people like it, own it, it has meaning to their lives and when it has gone they miss it.

The Clyde Bank Swans 17.2.10

In 2006 Julie Gurr, another local willow weaver, worked on a project at the Saltings a conservation area on the banks of the Clyde. The commission was to build two large swan sculptures with 5m wing spans that would glide above the footpath. They were impressive and became quite popular with local visitors to the site. However their exposure to the elements over the years has caused them to deteriorate and even with regular maintenance they are now in a sorry state.

An email went out last year for bids to rebuild the swans and I along with several others responded. I did not really think about it as I thought it was a formality and Julie would be the obvious choice. This was not the case and the task has fallen to me. I spoke to Julie, as it was all a bit embarassing, but she felt she had gone as far as she wanted to with the swans and was happy for someone else to take them on.

So this week I start work on the said birds.