by Ruby Taylor | Jan 7, 2023 | All Journal Entries, Courses, Foraging, Mindfulness & Re-Wilding, Wild Basketry
A photgraphic essay. Weaving bramble baskets in the woods, I’m joined by photographer Bethany Hobbs. These are her words and images, her story of our day. The humble bramble, the scratcher, the snarer, the snagger of jumpers, the bearer of tongue-staining fruit,...
by Ruby Taylor | Nov 1, 2022 | 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 | Sep 1, 2018 | All Journal Entries, Courses, Foraging, Wild Basketry, Wild Pottery
In conversation with No Serial Number Magazine, a publication which explores environmental sustainability through traditional crafts and innovative design. We discuss my practice: my relationship to the landscape where I forage my materials, and about coping with the...
by Ruby Taylor | Apr 4, 2018 | All Journal Entries, Courses, Foraging, Wild Basketry
After a day of making cordage from foraged plant fibres, my grubby fingernails show evidence of all the separating and scraping. Once you’re committed to the steady, repetitive nature of prepping and twining cordage, it’s a deeply satisfying process. So...
by Ruby Taylor | Aug 26, 2017 | All Journal Entries, Foraging, Wakehurst 2017
Space Between is a recently commissioned, site-specific woodland sculpture at Wakehurst, (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew). It’s situated in Pearcelands Wood, their newly-opened ancient woodland. It was commissioned as part of Wakehurst’s Wild Wood Festival,...
by Ruby Taylor | Aug 7, 2017 | All Journal Entries, Foraging, Wild Basketry
For ages I’ve been wanting to make a pack, or back, basket from wood splints. They’re best made in the spring when the sap’s rising, so earlier this year I took a trip to the woods near Bath for a few days to make one. There’s a long tradition...