I have always wanted to try basket weaving. Recently a friend went on a one-day workshop and made a beautiful basket. I decided to try as well so I enrolled for a one day workshop making a small asymmetrical basket. The workshop is held in a wonderful building just outside Durham City: Ushaw Historic House, Chapel and garden.
http://ushaw.org/
Ushaw was founded over 200 years ago to educate students for the Catholic priesthood, the vast estate contains buildings designed by Augustus Pugin and his followers, and is one of the most important examples of Victorian Gothic architecture in the North East. It is now a conference centre, bed and breakfast, offers workshops and beautiful gardens to enjoy.
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| Aerial view of Ushaw |
The one day workshop is run by Jo from Abundant Earth. The Polish asymmetrical basket is made with a solid wooden base, woven willow sides and a wooden handle.
Jo is a very experienced basket weaver. They have a lovely Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/abundantearthdurhamuk/
I arrived at 9:45 and waited with the other seven workshop participants in the entrance lobby.
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| The entrance hall to Ushaw College |
There was a a lovely walk to the workshop room
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| The amazing corridors |
This is the tutor's basket - she made it yesterday in three hours! It is beautiful and so evenly woven. It is made of willow which she cut herself and dried. Then it was soaked for one week for this workshop.
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| The asymmetrical Polish basket. |
The workshop was in the William Allen gallery and was designed by Edward Pugin. It was originally the Natural History Museum of the College and now houses visiting exhibitions and is used as an art gallery.
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| the workshop was held in the William Allen gallery. |
The art work was for sale. There was a display of work from Jo our tutor.
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| Display of work by the tutor for sale |
Here is my base for the basket. I had to choose 27 willow rods.
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| My base |
Jo demonstrated how to make the base of the basket. It always looks so easy when an expert is demonstrating.
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| Jo demonstrating how to begin |
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| the first round |
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| One round complete |
Here is my finished base. I have attached all the upright willow rods and I am about to start the weaving.
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| I finished the base |
I wove about four inches and then it was time for lunch. I used two colours of willow.
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| After the morning session |
We had our lunch in the Parlour,. This room was originally for the professors so that they could dine away from the students. It was designed by Edward Pugin.
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| The parlour - what an amazing place to have lunch. |
This is the refectory which is open to the public. This room was designed by Edward Pugin and was the dining hall for the students. The dinners were eaten in silence. It is now Divines Tearoom and is very popular.
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| This is the refectory next door |
Another view of our dining room. I have never dined at such a large table with these amazing candlesticks.
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| Another view of our lunch room |
Back to work in the afternoon.
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| Weaving one side |
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| Weaving the second side |
By four o'clock we had all finished our baskets. Mine is a bit wonky - but it is supposed to be asymmetrical.
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| my finished basket |
I had a wonderful day. It was so absorbing although my fingers are quite sore. Bending willow rods is hard work.
It was really lovely to try a new craft. I have always wanted to try basket weaving.
I have done several basket weaving classes here in the Somerset Levels, but this design is a new one on me. I grow a small amount of willow and have harvested recently, I shall try it this weekend! Sadly the course you describe is too far away from me!
ReplyDeleteit was great fun but hard on the fingers and hands. Good luck with your own willow
DeleteWhat an amazing place to take a workshop, and what a lovely basket!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun ! Your basket looks terrific. I love a craft that it both beautiful and useful.
ReplyDeleteNice Blog. Thanks For Sharing.
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Thank you so much for the blog post. I found it to be very interesting and enjoyed reading about what your thoughts are on this subject!
ReplyDelete#cotton rope basket
I’m live in the UK but I’m Polish and grew up with my grandmother surrounded by traditional crafts. Ceramics with traditional regional floral patterns (my own region produces the deep blue on white), the small wicker baskets we’d take to church on Easter, filled with onion skin stained and hand-painted pisanki, our yearly palms, the large ones my grandma would take to the forest in the fall to forage mushrooms with other grandmas occasionally bringing me along, the intricate embroidered doilies, the little punnets from thin strips of wood that would form a very square and flat weave, which farmers would sell berries in and we used to help pick strawberries on my uncle’s farm.
ReplyDeleteAnd I grew up in a city!
I also learned a bit about willow weaving at camp as a kid, so I hope you can bear with me calling BS on your instructor.
She took a cultural craft, learned it poorly, and is teaching it to others while charging for not very good results, and has the gall to still associate them with that culture’s traditional craft. I find this pretty distasteful.
Polish baskets are traditionally symmetrical, and while a kind interpretation would be to call her execution “modern”, a more realistic one given other issues I see from just the few pictures you shared is that symmetrical baskets take more skill to create and flaws are more difficult to conceal.
While I haven’t been in Poland in awhile and can’t speak to modern revivals, the use of wooden bases is another feature you don’t see in traditional wicker weaving and is, I imagine, another shortcut.
Weaving the base is where the basket begins, and where you see the beautiful symmetrical circular pattern emerge from. Part of the skill is in selecting the right length and thickness of materials to extend from the base to the very top of the basket. The material needs to be bent and manipulated as you go, it’s not a matter of braiding it. So again, another shortcut.
Worst of all is the quality of what she apparently is selling. It really doesn’t take a trained eye - look at the inconsistency in the spacing of some of her weaves, how it appears tight in some places and gapes in others. Look at the huge variation in size of the vertical support spokes in her “Polish asymmetrical basket”. Look at how gappy the weave securing the handle on the big one is.
None of that is a sign of good craftsmanship. I’m not saying she lacks any skill at all, nor that traditional craft cannot evolve, but there’s a huge difference in developing a practice and bastardising it. I wouldn’t really be so cutting about her pieces featured here if not for the fact she’s apparently selling this as “Polish” and misinforming people.
I am sorry that you did not appreciate the workshop that I took. I enjoyed it but I know that you cannot learn a new craft in one session. I realised that there is a lot of skill in weaving a basket out of willow and also that I found it very difficult to do. It showed me how skillful weavers are who produce willow baskets and that they will have built this skill over time. Most of the pictures are of the basket I was weaving - a complete beginner who had never tried this craft before. I am not surprised that my weaving is uneven and there are gaps in my weave structure.
ReplyDelete