Meadow Weave

Artist in Residence at Wakehurst (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) for the Meadow Festival and accompanying Meadow Folk exhibition, 2014.

The residency, ‘Meadow Weave‘ involved working with with species-rich hay plants, grown and harvested on site.

The brief was to explore the creative possibilities of the material and to make a piece for the timber-framed buildings opposite the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst.

Made of over 70 metres of hay rope using hay cut from the Wakehurst meadows. Looped into a large circular knotless netted structure, with a diameter of 2 metres.

This structure was suspended to create a convex form in the roof space of the open-sided timber-framed building near the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst.

The piece references the context of hay-making; how the activity binds communities together.

wakehurst meadows artist in residence 2014

Meadow Weave, work in progress.

hay grass basket

Meadow Vessel: Hay rope coiled with phormuim leaf fibre. Diameter of vessel 94cm. Exhibited at Making Lewes 2014.

coiled hay grass basket

Meadow Vessel, work in progress: coiling hay rope using a bone fid and phormium leaf fibre. You’ll find more photos, video clips etc in my journal.