Journal
Fibre & Clay in the Wild
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...
Looped Cordage: Netted Bags
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 much so that...
Wakehurst: Space Between
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, 2017. ...
Making an Ash Pack Basket
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 of black ash splint...
Foraging Plants for Wild Basketry; weaving a connection between land and self
‘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...
Wild Pottery: Clay- digging your own
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...
Forage of the Month
Forage of the Month – October
Fruit Leather Fruit leather is a really popular snack and easy to carry around with you. It's basically thin, pliable sheets of dehydrated fruit puree with a flexible consistency (like leather). But don't buy it in the shops because it's incredibly simple to make your...
Forage of the Month – August/September
Elderberry Elixir: this is one of my all-time favourite elderberry recipes, and it comes from Lucinda Warner at Whispering Earth. It's a long-lasting and delicious preparation that Lucinda describes as 'warming your wintery cockles'... I can definitely attest to that!...
Forage of the Month- June
Elderflower Cake The fragrant, frothy elder flowers are out now, a lovely sign of summer. Elderflower cordial recipes abound, so here's a favourite recipe of mine for elderflower cake. I've adapted a vegan cake recipe for this too, which you'll find further down. Pick...