Hayve workshop with Tim Johnson
After my workshop with Monica Guilera, I did another one with Tim Johnson, who works mainly with soft fibres and is highly regarded for his work exploring different natural materials and traditional techniques. This post on a previous blog of mine reviewed one of his exhibitions at Farnham in 2019. At this workshop in Germany […]
Nansa workshop with Monica Guilera
Earlier this month I spent nearly three weeks in Germany, attending a couple of workshops and visiting some basketry museums and the Lichtenfels basketry fair. These will be the subjects of my next few posts. The first workshop I did was with Monica Guilera, a Catalan basketmaker who makes, among other things, beautiful openwork willow […]
Nourish at Crafts Study Centre, Farnham
For an excellent showcase of the beauty and variety of colour and form that can be created in willow basketry, head for the Nourish exhibition at the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham. The 16 exhibitors came together during the Basketmakers’ Professional Development Programme last year, run by Cockpit Arts and funded by the Basketmakers’ Association […]
Paper cup weaving at Brixton Windmill
A couple of weeks ago I ran a workshop on paper cup weaving at Brixton Windmill’s Art in the Park. This is a free annual event where visitors are invited to draw or paint the 220-year-old windmill, or take part in other creative activities such as marbling, T-shirt printing, or making bug houses. There are […]
Forces in Translation at Wakehurst Place
A couple of weeks ago, to help allay the stress of the assessment and exhibition at City Lit, I spent a day at the gardens of Wakehurst Place with a group called Forces in Translation (FiT). FiT is a collaboration between basketmakers, anthropologists, and mathematicians – a very interesting interdisciplinary group. At Wakehurst Place they […]
Ruth Asawa at Modern Art Oxford
Revelling in my new freedom now that my course is finished, I took myself off to Oxford on Tuesday to see the exhibition Ruth Asawa: Citizen of the Universe at Modern Art Oxford. Before the pandemic I managed to visit another Asawa exhibition in London at the David Zwirner gallery. The Oxford exhibition seemed to […]
City Lit basketry course final show
So – it’s all over! Our final show opened on Monday with a private view, and ran the rest of the week until yesterday, when we took everything down. We had lots of positive feedback and we are all pleased and relieved that it is over. Here are a few pics of my work in […]
Inspired by Haeckel: molluscs
For my final assessment piece I could choose whatever technique or combination of techniques I liked. I decided to make a coiled piece, as I have previously had some success with coiling and it seemed perverse not to play to my strengths! My plan was to make a double-walled piece, inspired by Haeckel’s prints of […]
Inspired by Haeckel: coral
In the first year of our City Lit basketry course we had a module on working with cane (rattan), where we had to make a cane platter inspired by a landscape feature. Mine was inspired by mountain ridges and valleys. I later went on to make another one in just two colours, to emphasise the […]
Inspired by Haeckel: jellyfish
Three weeks to go until our exhibition and I still haven’t finished any of my pieces. Finally succumbing to Covid last week hasn’t helped, putting me out of action for a couple of days, including what should have been a day at college. But here’s an update on the progress of my plaited piece. I […]
