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...
by Ruby Taylor | Mar 9, 2017 | All Journal Entries, Foraging, Wild Basketry
‘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...
by Ruby Taylor | Jul 18, 2015 | All Journal Entries, Courses, Foraging, Stonehenge / Heritage, Wild Basketry
During the Neolithic time at Stonehenge, there would have been willows growing on the banks of the river Avon, which ran right by the houses situated at nearby Durrington Walls. These are the Neolithic dwellings that have been reconstructed at Stonehenge visitors...
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,...