Willow panels

I must admit we were slightly dreading the thought of weaving willow hurdles with children on a bitterly cold day in early February so we put it off till the next day which thankfully turned out relatively sunny and springlike.

Luckily we had a nice stock of golden willow so we were able to add some colour to these panels which are going to used as screening in a nursery.

The children quickly got into the swing of things as they wove the willow in and out of the uprights to the chant of ‘to me, to you’.

Gypsy baskets

Vale Adult Learners took on the Gypsy Basket challenge last month and after a fair amount of sighing, the odd curse or two and cries of please no more packing, beautiful shaped baskets unfolded.

Welsh Shoppers round two

The second day of the welsh shopper course took place last month. It was a pretty cold day and once again we were all huddled around the fire at the Heritage Coast Centre. With hoops, handles and ribs all dried out it was a day of weaving the basket. It’s quite a tricky basket if you keep the traditional weave going and try and shape the basket at the same time. Also helps if you’re told how to start the basket off properly in the first place, I blame brain freeze…

A day at Slade in Southerndown

A lovely sunny Monday was the perfect day for a spot of maintenance and Slade House in Southerndown was the perfect spot for it. Walking down through the stunningly beautiful snowdrops and the purple crocus just about to burst open, was enough to lift anybody’s spirits. With the help of Mark the gardener we soon got to work and in no time at all we’d completed the beautiful willow arbour that sits at the bottom of the garden.

Next was the willow entranceway with a run of fedge either side of a short tunnel. The willow had thickened up nicely so we were able to create a roll top for the fedge and the tunnel had lots of small branches which we wove in. The result was very pleasing.

We finished off with the four way arch which had grown so well that we were able to create a canopy of woven willow that come spring time will burst into leaf and be a lovely source of shade for summer.

Set in six acres, Slade garden is an unexpected gem with masses of spring flowers. The terraced lawns, mature specimen trees, living willow arbours, rose and clematis pergola, orchard and herbaceous borders, create a very natural garden that also has extensive views over the Bristol Channel. The garden is open under the National Garden Scheme on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 April this year and is well worth a visit.

I’m swapping my day’s work for some of their fantastic organic meat http://www.sladefarmorganics.com can’t wait for Sunday lunch!

The living willow season is well and truly on us and we’ve already completed a fair few domes, tunnels, teepees and even a living willow dragon.

We had a lovely time at Ysgol Maes Y Coed both before Christmas doing a willow Christmas decoration day and last month building a willow fedge with colourful basket willow varieties so that the school can grow their own willow for craft and have a lovely living fence.

Big in Barry

We’ve also been big in Barry and had three days at Gladstone Primary and five days at Colcot Primary building mega domes, miles of tunnels and a whole village of teepees. With temperatures below freezing on quite a few occasions we’re all quickly beginning to resemble Nanook of the North and I found myself taking off 15 items of clothing before I entered the much needed willow bath. (That’s not an actual bath made of willow it’s a term used when you’ve been out willowing and freezing your nether regions off all day and the thing you most look forward to is a bath)

The year of the dragon

Snow! Just what you need when faced with three intensive days of living willow planting and just what we got in Bryn Bach Primary in Tredegar. The team were out en force and despite freezing conditions we managed to get all the willow planted and a reasonable dragon shape in three days. Many thanks Mary, Sarah L and Jo for helping out I couldn’t have managed without you. Back to add fiery breath and a nest of dragon’s eggs in a weeks time.

Sometimes you just have to adapt

December was a busy month for our basket makers, we had beginners making blackberry baskets, inters making welsh shoppers and pros making squares.

Vale Adult Learners Beginners made beautiful blackberry baskets and in the absence of the soaking tank (wheelie bin) the local pond came in handy. Not sure what the fish made of it but worked all the same although I did notice a few crawly things when rinsing the baskets off, didn’t like to mention it to anyone. The baskets turned out really well complete with handles, not bad for a day’s work.

Welsh Shoppers

Competition between the sound of the fire spitting, the splitting of big willow rods and the cursing of several women was rife in the Heritage Coast Centre, Southerndown when the inters were preparing the willow for their Welsh Shoppers. This was the first of a two day course spread over a month which was making the rim and ribs to allow them to dry for the next course which will be weaving the basket. The process involved taking several large willow rods, splitting them in two, shaving them down to make sturdy ribs and handles which were then pressed around a forma to keep shape. The rim is also a large rod pressed around a forma and allowed to dry out. Looking forward to the weaving in a couple of weeks time.

Squares

Square baskets are always a challenge so when several of the pros said let’s make a log basket I thought we’d be there for some time. Day one – bases were complete and baskets staked up, even with all that scalloming. Day two – ten hours later with a no stopping weaving frenzy, a bountiful supply of cake, several trips for baskets to go in and out of my bath, we finally finished. They were beautiful baskets and a real achievement in two days. Just trying to think of more challenges for this year.

Last week saw the start of our Christmas decorations courses – five of them, all full!

The teacher’s courses ran in the wonderful House for the Future at St Fagans. We had two lovely days working through our school progression which moves from oval festive birdfeeders, through colourful wreaths with freshly cut willow, to five pointed stars filled with random weave and fairy or angel wands for little ones or to go in flowers. The afternoon focussed on a lovely tree for the classroom and allowed teachers to relax and focus on improving their weaving skills. As always we reflected on how little time we have as primary school teachers to work on our own skills before passing them onto the children. The day ended with weaving a little angel for the top of the tree complete with feather halo – aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww!

The teachers left with huge bundles of willow and armfuls of their wonderful creations fired up to pass on their new skills to their pupils. The only complaint – where is the mulled wine on teacher’s days?! Next year – we promise!

The end of the week saw a course for the keen and talented parents at Rhigos Primary School, one of our favourite places on earth, a course at All Saints in Southerndown and finally another running at the Botanic Gardens. I moan like hell about the Christmas ads on the Telly in November but this is different, this is ‘real’ christmas – using the materials around us to start preparing for a natural and sustainable festive season.

So five courses down – nine to go, and going to try so hard not to be Christmassed out by Christmas!

Our courses are now unfortunately full for this year, the living willow season has also started – why not put your name down for next year!

We had a fantastic two days at Rhydfelen Nursery finishing off the Fairytale Village with a carved wooden arch. Although we have done a fair bit of green woodworking, use knives on a daily basis  and had worked alongside another woodcarver we still felt we had a lot to learn when we embarked on this project.

We needn’t have worried. We spent two days working on carving and chiselling the children’s own drawings and impressions of their willow village (see previous blog entry) onto a lovely ash arch. This is still one of our favourite projects as everytime we visit we observe the incredible imaginative play that goes on. This time the whole group of ten children were whispering and tiptoeing around the structures so as not to wake the sleeping dragon in her lair.  The staff also reported that a child who chooses not to speak at all in nursery came out of the willow village telling a story about the dragon – how fantastic is that!

Coffins

September was very busy preparing for our first commercial coffin course to be taught by Roy Youdale from Bristol. It had actually taken more than a year to prepare for this course as we worked on a design which would be suitable to be taught over the course of a week which would give advanced basketmaker’s a chance to improve their overall skills and produce something quite beautiful.  We had a wonderful week with our course participants staying in a lovely local cottage with outstanding views of the cliffs of the beautiful Glamorgan Heritage Coast.

Reflecting on the progression of skills in basketmaking, most people start with a small round or frame basket worked with 4ft willow and then gradually build up over the months or years to working on larger more intricate projects with heavier willow. Our coffin course participants (all with a fair few baskets under their belts) worked with 6ft, 7ft and 8ft willow to produce intricate oval coffins with beautiful fastenings. They learned and practiced a whole range of weaves including 4 rod wale, plait borders, french randing over a very large area, fixings and fastenings and how to keep weaving straight and even. Working for five days solid is also a luxury for most people learning basketmaking these days and the sheer volume of weaving in a coffin allows you to get into a fluid repetitive rhythm and work on improving the evenness and neatness of your weaving.  The finished coffins were , quite simply, works of art.

Cyntells

Day two of our Cyntell course was a relaxing and enjoyable day with course participants travelling from as far as Oxford and Devon. The finished baskets were absolutely beautiful examples of traditional frame baskets which are made using the exact dimensions handed down from D J Davies to Les Llewelyn and Marvin Morgan. These two basketmakers are still making baskets for sale, Les also teaches from his home in Bridgend.

Courses

Progressive 1 saw a day learning techniques of making bowl shaped round baskets – the challenge is always to make sure the weaving is rapped down well and the bowl shap is even all round.  Some people learned how to weave a ‘German Wale’ which makes a lovely foot on the basket and gives an even join between the base and sides of the basket – as ever student’s found moving from sticky buff willow to waxy Dicky Meadows a big jump but a lovely selection of extremely different baskets were produced at the end of the day.

Progressive 2 learned fitching to make a wine basket.

Sculpture

Sculpture has been very popular this year and the course at the end of the month was busy with eleven participants making a fantastic variety of bird sculptures.  On the same day we were working with 25 people in Pontardawe to construct a sculpture of an owl in the Riverside park as well as a variety of smaller craft sculptures to take home.

Other September projects included the sculpture of a phoenix in Willows High School in Cardiff, garden work including a woven rose arch, a Crown and Wand workshop for 90 Teddys and their mini owners at their Teddy Bear’s picnic –  a fast and furious hour and a half  - and a teacher’s Environmental Art course for Swansea and Neath Port Talbot where the favourite activity was – of course – willow weaving!

WILLOW TASTER COURSE Countryfile Article

Date: Tuesday 13th September 2011

Venue: All Saint’s Church Hall, Southerndown, 10am-4pm

A variety of willow weaving projects, from simple stars to woven hearts finishing with a small frame basket. An enjoyable and relaxing day spent working with willow.

WILLOW BASKET MAKING FOR BEGINNERS

Date: Wednesday 12th October 2011

Venue:  All Saints Church Southerndown, 9.30am-4pm

Learn to make a small round basket using a variety of willow. Learn the technique of working with willow to make a round base, insert stakes and weave the sides of a traditional willow basket.

WILLOW SCULPTURE

Date: Sunday 30th October 2011

Venue National Botanic Gardens, Carmarthen, 10am-4pm

Learn to design and create a small animal or bird sculpture. This course introduces the technique of sculpting with willow, how to create a 3d shape and to fill in using a random weave.

To book please contact the National Botanic Gardens tel 01558 667150
or email kbailey@gardenofwales.org.uk

WILLOW CRAFTS FOR CHRISTMAS

This course covers a variety of willow weaving techniques using both dried and freshly cut willow. Course participants will learn to make several willow Christmas decorations including wreaths, stars, chains and trees. A glass of mulled wine and a warm mince pie make this course a fantastic way to get you into the Christmas spirit.

Date:   Saturday 19th November 2011
Venue Heritage Coast, Southerndown, 10am-4pm : £50

Date: Tuesday 29th November 2011

Venue:  All Saints Church Southerndown, 10.00 am-4pm

LIVING WILLOW STRUCTURE

Date: Wednesday 7th December 2011

Venue: Pencoed Growers, Bridgend, 9.30am-3.00pm : £50

This course covers teaches you how to design and plant a living willow structure. Participants will be taught how to lay out, plant and construct with living willow rods and will build a variety of structures suitable for gardens, community spaces and schools. Traditional weaving techniques, care and maintenance of structures will also be covered.

NEW FOR 2011 – CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS 2 - Willow and Hedgerow

Follow on course from Willow Christmas Decorations. Come and spend another relaxing day with us preparing for Christmas. Learn to weave a selection of NEW items to decorate your home for Christmas:

Choose from:  Rustic Wreath including Contorted Willow and Hedgerow materials, 3D Angel, Willow Chains, Conical Christmas Tree, Hearts for Presents

We will have a variety of fresh coloured willow and hedgerow materials available to decorate your items.

Date: Friday 25th November 2011

Venue:  All Saints Church Southerndown, 10.00 am-4pm

Date: Saturday 10th December 2011

Venue:  All Saints Church Southerndown, 10.00 am-4pm

Looking forward to seeing you!

We all spread out amongst the apple trees with our 36 willow rods, gathered them into six sets of six and began arranging them into a sort of Star of David pattern. Luckily we had printed instructions which Dawn kindly read out for phase 1, we all managed this successfully with little drama.

Phase 2 involved going over a teepee, in and out of a lake, through a door and back out the other side, all was good.  ”I like this” Sarah H cried, and that was before the elderflower champagne

Phase 3 was slightly more taxing with the introduction of otters leaping in and out of pools, (don’t know who wrote the instructions but it wasn’t me…)

We knew Sarah L would be good at this, she has an incredible eye for patterns and she proved us right but all in all there wasn’t too much gnashing of teeth, swearing or heavy sighs at all really.

Lunch was a bring your own picnic and some delicious elderflower champagne made by Clare, it was lovely sitting in the beautiful warm sunshine just chatting and relaxing.

After lunch we tackled the ‘pulling in’, a marvelous way to tone up those bat wings, who needs Jane Fonda when they’ve got a celtic knot basket to manhandle. This is probably the most taxing part of the basket and takes quite a bit of effort to make the flat shape become a bowl shape.

All in all a great basket to do in a group, not a bodkin or rapping iron in sight and nobody ending up crying, result!