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...
by Ruby Taylor | Jun 19, 2014 | All Journal Entries, Courses, Foraging, Wild Basketry
I’m standing in a large patch of shoulder-high wild grasses on the edge of a midsummer Sussex field. I’m here foraging grass for basketry. They’re in full flower, stashed full of pollen, and I’m a hay fever sufferer. Hmm… To one side is a...
by Ruby Taylor | Apr 2, 2013 | All Journal Entries, Foraging, Wild Basketry
I was inspired to make this piece using twine made of lime and foraged willow bast, after hearing about archaeological finds of looped fibre fragments from the late Mesolithic period (middle stone age) found in Denmark. That’s around 9,000 years ago, pre-agriculture,...
by Ruby Taylor | Mar 5, 2013 | All Journal Entries, Foraging, Wild Basketry
Last winter there were a few weeks when it was unusually snowy. And in the usual English way, human life pretty much ground to a halt because of it. One morning I heard a loud thump at a window. At head height was a little clump of small downy feathers stuck to the...