Regular followers know that I usually work on a small scale – most pieces I make can be held comfortably in the palm of one hand. But sometimes it’s good to push out of my comfort zone. So I signed up for a course in sculptural willow basketry at the Basketmakers’ Association (BA) Spring School last week.
The residential Spring School is held every year around Easter and is a wonderful opportunity for 50 or so members of the BA to immerse themselves in basketry for five days with a group of like-minded souls. Two years ago I did a course on looping with Tim Johnson. There are usually six tutors covering a range of techniques, and as well as learning a new technique with your own group it’s always fascinating to see what other groups are up to.
Sculptural willow
Our tutor was Mel Bastier from Out to Learn Willow, who specialises in making large-scale willow sculptures – she’s currently working on a life-size elephant!
Mel brought along some baskets made using a similar technique to inspire us (pics above). But I’d seen a piece she’d made for an exhibition in Oxford representing the malaria virus and asked if I could make something like that (obviously smaller!), and she agreed.
Regardless of what we were making, everyone started with a hoop, on which we created a framework of random weave. In my case, I then added further “stakes” and filled them in with more random weave until I had the shape I wanted.
Then we started the directional weave over the framework, covering all the gaps.
There is usually more than one layer, so you end up using quite a lot of willow. According to Mel, the piece is finished when you can’t see any of the original support framework. I didn’t quite manage that in four days, but was very happy with the result.
Everyone else made at least two baskets in the time I took to make a single piece. But I did manage to get it home on the train (and tube and bus)!.
Other workshops
As I said, it’s also interesting to see what other groups have been working on.
Don’t worry – normal service will resume shortly!
Kim everyone’s work looks fantastic and it must have been a totally immersive enjoyable few days.
I love your mini malaria virus and kudos to you getting it back home in one piece….no mean feat.
I also love the photo….emphasising ‘scaling up’ (if scanning from right to left of course) 😜
Great work👏🏾Rather envious