Staggered twining over double warp

In fact, according to Annemarie Seiler-Baldinger in her inestimable Textiles: A Classification of Techniques, the full name of this technique is (deep breath) staggered weft twining over a double transposed warp. In plain English, you are twining two separate warp layers alternately, at the same time as the warp threads pair alternately with the ones […]

5th World Wicker and Weaving Festival

Last week I attended the 5th World Wicker and Weaving Festival in Poznan, Poland. It was held in the cavernous Poznan Expo Centre over four scorchingly hot days, when the external temperature was above 30C. The main highlight was the live weaving competition, where over 130 competitors from around the world had 15 hours over […]

Inspired by Morigami Jin

Sometimes you end up in a completely different destination from where you intended. My idea was to further explore freestyle or irregular plaiting. After my first foray into this technique, I saw some lovely examples of it at the recent Eskenazi exhibition. So I went back to my photos and books on Japanese bamboo art […]

Bamboo masterworks from Japan at the Eskenazi

I’m guessing that last year’s exhibition of Japanese bamboo art at the Eskenazi was a great success, as the gallery is currently showing some more. As the name suggests, Bamboo Masterworks from Japan – Classical to Contemporary includes works by some older masters of the art alongside contemporary artists, some of whom featured in the […]

London Craft Week 2023

London Craft Week is a great opportunity to see wonderful makers from further afield as well as the UK, but the brochure and website are tricky to navigate, and some “events” seem to be simply plugs for luxury brands. This year I made it to three venues. There was lots to see, but here I […]

Teaching basketry at Morley College: plaiting

I’m very excited to announce that from January 2023 I am going to be teaching basketry at evening classes at Morley College in south London. I started my textiles journey at Morley more than 10 years ago, so it’s great to be going back! The course is on Tuesday evenings, 6-9pm. In the first term […]

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 […]

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 […]