Scaling up with willow sculpture
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 […]
Satellites by Dan Coopey at Corvi-Mora
Dan Coopey is a British artist living and working in Minas Gerais, Brazil. To be honest I’d not heard of him until a friend sent me a link to one of his Instagram posts about this exhibition. The Corvi-Mora is fairly local to me but again, I’d never visited. So a double first! Coopey studied […]
Coiled scrunchie
Teaching is never a one-way process. I often learn things from my students – as they do from each other. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of the job. On one of my coiling courses last year we were exploring how the technique can be used to create alternative forms. One of the students […]
Dryad Basketry: A Global Collection
The Dryad Furniture Showroom in Leicester was founded in 1907 by Harry Peach, a businessman who was interested in craft and design. He sold cane and wicker furniture, and during the First World War donated materials for wounded soldiers to make baskets as occupational therapy. This was so successful that he opened a handicrafts section […]
Tadek Beutlich: On and Off the Loom
Another week, another weaving exhibition. But Tadek Beutlich (1922-2011) was more than a weaver – he was also an artist, printmaker, and teacher. And his innovative weaving both on and off the loom revelled in the use of unconventional materials and techniques. A couple of years ago there was a great exhibition of his work […]
Lenore Tawney & Toshiko Takaezu: A Remarkable Friendship
First of all, many apologies. I only got to this exhibition at Alison Jacques yesterday, and it closes on Saturday. So not much time if you want to visit! But if you happen to be in the area in the next couple of days it’s worth going to see. Lenore Tawney and Toshiko Takaezu were […]
Haegue Yang: Leap Year
The title of Korean artist Haegue Yang’s exhibition at the Hayward Gallery is certainly apt, as she leaps between different subjects and materials, from folk art to household objects, from paper collage to clusters of bells. I went for the basketry but stayed for much more. These were my three favourite themes. Basketry There were […]
Kitchen extension basketry
I’ve been a bit preoccupied recently because we are building a kitchen extension. Not building it ourselves, of course, but having teams of workmen knocking down walls, inserting steel beams, and building new walls. That’s as far as they’ve got in four weeks, which is pretty good going – partly because it hasn’t rained and […]
Weaving by the Sea and Salt Basketry Fair 2024
After teaching at a couple of back-to-back residential weekend workshops, it was a relief to get away to become a student again, without teaching responsibilities. Even better, the workshop was part of Weaving by the Sea, a very popular series of workshops in Catalonia, just south of Barcelona. This was the third time I had […]
Cable twining, or crossed warps
My autumn knitting project is going well. So well, in fact, that I might actually finish this sweater in time to wear it this winter. 🙂 The pattern is called Rilaé (available here if you are interested) and has a central block of cable stitch on the front and back. For non-knitters, the cable pattern […]
