by Ruby Taylor | Mar 9, 2017 | All Journal Entries, Foraging, Wild Basketry
‘Plants are integral to reweaving the connection between land and people. A place becomes a home when it sustains you, when it feeds you in body as well as spirit.’ (Robin Wall Kimmerer) There’s an arable field margin under two ancient oaks that is species-rich with...
by Ruby Taylor | Nov 1, 2016 | All Journal Entries, Courses, Foraging, Wild Pottery
One of the things that makes my Wild Pottery courses ‘wild’ is that we dig our own clay from the land What is Clay? Ask this of anyone and they’ll most likely reply ‘mud’. But there’s a bit more to it than that. It’s made up of one or more clay minerals with traces of...
by Ruby Taylor | Oct 28, 2015 | All Journal Entries, Wakehurst: artist in residence
I’ve returned to Wakehurst on a bright autumn day to see if the rumours are true. One of my areas of research for this project was looking at nests. And that’s why I’m back today. I’ve heard birds have nested in the work I made. My godson...
by Ruby Taylor | Jul 29, 2015 | All Journal Entries, Courses, Foraging
It’s a busy time for foraging plant materials right now. The plants have made all the vegetative growth they’re going to make this year. And now they’re setting seed. Over the past months I’ve logged key spots in my mental map of the neighbourhood, spots where certain...
by Ruby Taylor | Jul 18, 2015 | All Journal Entries, Courses, Foraging, Stonehenge / Heritage, Wild Basketry
During the Neolithic time at Stonehenge, there would have been willows growing on the banks of the river Avon, which ran right by the houses situated at nearby Durrington Walls. These are the Neolithic dwellings that have been reconstructed at Stonehenge visitors...
by Ruby Taylor | Jun 25, 2015 | All Journal Entries, Foraging, Stonehenge / Heritage, Wild Basketry
I’m delighted to have been invited by English Heritage to run some staff training at Stonehenge in Neolithic-style basketry. They recently constructed a number of Neolithic style dwellings on site (pictured left)… and it’s there that I’ll be...