Description
Fri 28 March & 4 April (2 day course)
10am – 4pm
Join master basket weaver Anna Liebmann for two fun and sociable days of willow basketry and create an oval willow trug basket that will be ideal for foraging and gathering. We’ll start with a dried hoop onto which you’ll attach wooden ribs to create a basket or tray form, using soaked flexible willow. We’ll build up our baskets using successive weaving, adding and shaping of more ribs to create the right shape. Choose whether to add one central handle or two side handles to create the basket of your choice. Select from the warm and varied hues of willow provided to create banded patterns within your weaving. The frame basketry technique is a vernacular style, a great heritage skill that we are proud to continue.
If you complete your oval trug you’ll be free to explore further small projects which will hopefully inspire you to make ethical and regenerative decorations and meaningful gifts. Anna will bring a variety of samples such as nut baskets, decorative stars and bird feeders, to inspire your creative weaving.
Once you’ve mastered the basic principals in this beginners willow weaving workshop you’ll be equipped to tackle making baskets under your own steam. We will be working with specially grown basketry willow but Anna will pass on a wealth of valuable information about other suitable plants, and where to find them. If you have any flexible material you would like to incorporate into your basket please feel free to bring them along to week one and we’ll work on incorporating them into your basket. One year old pruning of most woods should be suitable, dog wood is a big favourite.
Beginners Willow Basketry is suitable for both beginners and improvers. It’s a great place to start if you’ve never woven before, or if you’ve taken one of Anna’s classes with us already this is a brilliant additional skill to add to your basket weaving repertoire. Will weaving is a physical task, and requires a degree of hand strength.
- All tools and materials are included in the course cost, but you are welcome to bring your own materials to try weaving with
- Tea and coffee are provided but participants should bring their own lunch and utensils
- All of our classes are suitable for over 16s, younger crafters may be accommodated if accompanied by a participating adult but please contact us before booking
- If the workshop you were looking at is fully booked drop us an email and we’ll add you to the waiting list. We will add extra dates to our most popular workshops too, join the mailing list to be the first to know
- All of our workshops are held at our accessible workshop at Craft Central, High Street, Dunblane, FK15 0EE.
- If you need to cancel or reschedule your workshop we need at least three weeks notice. Please read our cancellation policy before booking
