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: calcareous sponges

With less than six weeks until our exhibition at City Lit opens, I’m feeling the pressure a bit, as I still haven’t finished any of my four remaining pieces. As I mentioned in a previous post, these pieces are all inspired by Haeckel. The one I’ve made most progress on is a shallow twined dish […]

Inspired by Haeckel: eight samples

We’re now in the last term of the two-year City Lit Creative Basketry course and working on our pieces for our final assessment. These will form the basis of an exhibition at City Lit in July (like our degree show). Each student has to make five works: eight samples, a piece from soft materials, a […]

Triaxial weaving and mad weave

basket containing triaxial balls

For the past couple of weeks at City Lit we have been working on triaxial weaving. Unlike conventional weaving, which uses two axes at right angles to each other (warp and weft), this uses three axes, at 60º to each other – hence the name triaxial. It is also known as hexagonal weaving, but as […]

Bubblewrap basket

A couple of weeks ago we started back at City Lit on the second year of the Creative Basketry course. It was great to be back in the classroom with my fellow students again. We spent the first two sessions developing visual designs and processing materials. In the first week we played with newspaper, seeing […]

Christiane Sand Award for Coiling 2021

coiled tortoise

I’m delighted to announce that I am one of two students who received the Christiane Sand Award for Coiling from City Lit. Christiane Sand first enrolled on the City Lit Creative Basketry course in September 2011. After completing it she was diagnosed with cancer and re-enrolled in 2015 as a therapeutic pursuit alongside her cancer […]