Journal
Meet the Maker
I talk with Kim Winter, editor at the Basketmakers Association, about my practice. KW: How did you get into making baskets with foraged materials? The training I had at degree level (3D Craft, Brighton Uni) was formative, being materials led. I remember in the first...
Nests and Baskets
It was made and laid last spring, during the first lockdown, in a town centre shrub, barely concealed, and less than half a metre from the ground. It was a time when there were few humans (or their dogs) on the streets, and so would have been a good location at the...
Wakehurst: Space Between
Site specific sculpture commissioned by Wakehurst in 2017 as part of the Wild Wood Festival. Situated in Pearcelands Wood, their newly-opened ancient woodland. The horizontal oak branch (from which hazel poles are suspended) fell in the great storm of 1987. The branch...
Joy of Clay
Lots of us haven't made anything from clay since primary school, and it even then it was most likely commercially produced clay, which is bland in comparison to stuff you dig yourself. Perhaps that was also the last time many of us got truly stuck into squishing up...
Making an Oak Swill
One of the first things you notice about Owen Jones, apart from his friendly, relaxed demeanor, is his hands: huge and work-worn. They've definitely seen some years of graft. I'm at his workshop in Cumbria, to make an oak swill. This is a traditional split wood basket...
Archaeologists Making Baskets
A crisp cold November morning and I'm meeting a group of archaeologists at Fort Cumberland in Portsmouth for a day of basketmaking. During our discussions and through the making itself, a couple of very interesting revelations happen over the day, which make...
Forage of the Month
Forage of the Month- February
Bramble Tips Lots of us know bramble as the blackberry bush, the one that gives us those delicious autumnal berries that stain our fingers and tongues. Bramble plants are vigorous and plentiful in their growing habit, and the hardiness of the plant means it has a...
Forage of the Month- November/December
Rosehip VinegarThis is a favourite, super-easy recipe. It comes from 'Hedgerow Medicine' by friends Julie and Matthew Bruton-Seal. You can easily find loads of recipes for rose hip syrup... but if you want to preserve their goodness without using sugar this is the...
Forage of the Month- Oct/Nov
Birch Polypore This is the wild mushroom that’s in the soup we cook on the fire for lunch on my woodland courses. Birch Polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) is also known as razor strop fungus, birch conk, birch bracket. It’s valued for its medicinal properties and my...