| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Penny |
Growing willow for basketryAnyone do it?Found this interesting article from Kew Gardens about it: http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ksheets/willows.html#how |
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| wellington womble |
No, but I'd love too. I'm too wimpy to go helping myself from other people's woodlands! If I have a bit more space, I'd grow hazel and coppice it, not so much for basketry but garden stuff - bean poles, pea sticks, arches and tee-pees, and hurdles and fences. It's so chunky, its quick and easy, and it doesn't matter if its bit rustic. Then it all gets recycled as firelighters when it falls to bits. I love wood, and hazel best of all. I can see a woodworking course in the offing (especially with Sally's cinamon logs tempting me as well!)
I suppose I could aspire to baskets, but they are a bit delicate for me! |
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| Nanny |
been thinking a lot about coppicing and stuff because we have 10 acres of woodland here, a lot of which is old hazel coppice
i was thinking about making some hurdles and have searched the web for how to do it and can't find a single thing apart from a guy who will sell me a dvd on it for £30....is it such a secret then? thought about getting someone in to have a look at the woodland to see if there is something we can do to manage it a bit better than the nothing that has been done with it for the last 20 years |
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| wellington womble |
I've got a destruction booklet which I bought from somerset levels (I'll get a link in a mo) for 2.50. It's based on willow, but it can't be that hard/different, surely?! If they don't do it anymore, I'm happy to lend by post - it's quite small.
I did some hazel weaving a few years ago, by pure guesswork and making it up as I went along. It worked, although it only lasted a few years (it was only a little border boundry). Also, round here, the foresty commision run little events in the wood, and often have demonstrations of this kind of thing. Worth going to anyway, I'd have thought. |
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| sean |
Rosemoor which is the RHS garden near us runs basketry and hurdle making courses. They've got gardens all over the place, so probably worth a look. | ||
| wellington womble |
Actually, thinking about it, there are one day courses at our local college for about 30 quid. Perhaps its worth a look there too? | ||
| Penny |
No shortage of basketry courses around here quite cheap too - but they tend to be about making baskets, not growing willow for making baskets 
I'd quite like to see some growing.... 
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| LynneA |
My local Red Cross bookshop has a couple of basketry books in at the moment - one of them from 1903!
Also noticed on the Kew site that they're looking for volunteers to take part in tours given by their trainee guides - check the news page for the dates. |
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| bernie-woman |
I will try to take a pic when I am next down the nature reserve but basically you just get some willow withies and poke them into the ground. Those planted near the stream have done much better than further away
This might give some more info growing willow |
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| sean |
It's almost impossible to *not* grow willow. ISTR reading somewhere that you get over 50% taking if you stick the cuttings in the wrong way up. | ||
| gil |
If you are going to grow willow for basketry, you really have to coppice it regularly (probably every year), otherwise the branches grow too large for weaving - would probably make good vertical posts for hurdles though.
ISTR instructions for making hurdles in John Seymour's book. |
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| judith |
I was going to say the same thing. I don't think a single one of our sticks failed. |
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| Penny |
That sounds good - OH wants a windbreak that doesn't get too tall, and I want to do some basketry. We were thinking about doing this: Planting the first row in the next few weeks, then another row next year about the same time. Coppicing the first row in Nov next year (or possibly this year, if it's grown enough) , and then the other row the following Nov and so on.... Would that work do you think? Could we plant the second row from cuttings from the first row? |
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| Jamanda |
Is this of any interest? Look at 23rd March. | ||
| Penny |
That looks brilliant Jamanda Is it near you?
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| sean |
Not far away. | ||
| Penny |
We've e-mailed them about it, thier Willow looks quite cheap too. | ||
| gil |
Not sure the willow would be branchy enough to coppice within a year of planting - you could try cuttung the top off it (I'm assuming it will still basically be a single stem at that stage). It is very hard to kill willow. If you did find you needed more cuttings for the second year, there are loads of potential ones here I found you could also plant them in the summer and they would take (that was the year I used willow cuttings as pea sticks).
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| Nanny |
if you can find the link and it discusses hurdle making it might give me a bit of a steer don't want to do it professionally or anything but it does seem a waste of good hazel not to use it for something thinking about willow though.........if it was planted as a windbreak, do you think you could cut it like a hedge to keep it the right height? never tried that before.... and you are right, even when the goat took the top right off the one i planted in my old garden, it recovered and flourished |
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| Cathryn |
I have a great book called Living willow sculpture - it has loads in from (growing ) woven hedges to chairs also growing and wigwams (which I made for the children in my previous home). It doesn't have hurdles as such (because it will grow if it is anywhere near the ground I imagine) but it does have beautiful living hedges with peepholes and the like in them. | ||
| Penny |
Just been trying to see how much prepared willow for making baskets costs, and I can't find any  Anyone have any idea what I sould be searching for? I tried "willow for basketry" "Basket making" "craft supplies" and combinations of these, but only came up with people who sold naff kits, or who sold live willow ready for planting.
Anyone know of a supplier of ready to weave willow? |
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| gil |
What do you have to do to willow after cutting to prepare it for basketry ? Dry, but not too dry ? Or still green ? | ||
| Penny |
From the Kew Gardens site:
The willow rods are firstly sorted for length and cleaned. In brown rods the bark is left on, but for white and buff rods it is stripped off. Machines are now used to "strip the willow", once done by hand. For buff rod production, bundles of willow rods are placed in a tank of water and boiled for up to ten hours. The softened rods are then stripped while they are still warm. The rods are dried, either in sheds or in the open, before storage. Finally, the rods are tied up for sale into bundles called "bolts". It has to be soaked again before it gets made into baskets. Still haven't found any - perhaps the basket makers of the UK all grow their own
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| Cathryn |
I think the opposite but i am sorry my book is no use on that. What it does say (and probably why I like it) is "There are no hard and fast rules aboput weaving techniques..." It also advises against hybrids such as Bowles as they can be too brittle for weaving. | ||
| Penny |
Think the opposite to what Ruby? what Kew Gardens say? This is all mighty confuseling, I must say
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| wellington womble |
Nanny and Penny, you both might find something useful here Susie Vaughn's handmade basket book has lots of info about all the soaking in the bath and abandoning under hedges stuff, and hurdle making, I reckon is a simple as it looks! You put the uprights in, and weave the horizontals between them, bashing them down with a chisel to keep it tight. I think its like plastering or cake decorating. The principles are very simple, there's just a knack to it that you develop with practice, so you might as well just have a go and make your own mistakes (it'll still make good kindling when it falls apart!) I had a go at some small fences and boder edgings, that lasted a few years, and it was very relaxing pleasant stuff to do, outside in the sunshine. |