Christmas tree! Yule yule yule!

It's been raining horribly today so I've spent some time keeping dry and making our christmas tree! It's a simple affair, a bunch of steamed willow with some ivy I foraged yesterday and favourite christmas decorations I've collected over the years from charity shops or made by friends. 

Soo.. I started by getting an old stick of yew and trapping it in a basket with some heavy stones. I made a willow ring to help the whips flow out at the bottom.

Then I bunched a good wodge of steamed willow withies together and tied them at the top to the yew stick. It's then a bit of a fiddle, requiring lots of patience, to get the base of the rods to be at a reasonably similar height from the floor, by pulling the tips up or pushing the ends up.

I've now covered the trees in bits n bobs and surrounded it with the beeeyutiful christmas baubles I found in a charity shop years ago. On the tree is a couple of needle felted holly leaves with berries that I   made a while ago, a gorgeous copper bird made by the beautiful Jackie Stewart and a long string of gold paper stars I bought from Amnesty International yonks ago. The glowing pagan star at the top of the tree my Mum bought me and has a candle in (elf n safety..), and obviously most importantly of all there's the fairy on the top left of the picture. I made her about 12 years ago now and it's the best of days when she makes her appearance!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!


hen xx

A Little Woolly Tree

I don't normally post my needlefelting creations here.  Not really sure why.  Well, since the past week has been about being trapped in the house with wool instead of willow, I've not got anything else to post!! So here's one I made last night!

I doooOOooo love working with wool.  It's very satisfying, if a little odd that stabbing something lots and lots should be so pleasing!

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant news about chickens!!  I'm booked to collect 4 ex-battery hens in the middle of June!  I'm a little apprehensive about how upset I'll be but I can't wait for the opportunity to give them a home!  

When I was in my early teens I plastered my school & family with information about battery eggs, battery meat chickens & battery meat pigs.  Finally I can practically do something to directly offer a bit of relief to a minute fraction of these suffering animals.  Oh... bloody hell...  I can't wait.

hen
xx

The Heritage Crafts Association

"The Heritage Crafts Association has been formed to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage.

It is unique as an organisation in believing that craft skills should be protected, promoted and recorded as part of our living heritage in their own right, not merely in terms of the objects they produce or their conservation value to old buildings."

- The Heritage Crafts Association website.  www.heritagecrafts.org.uk

Linen Basket - It's finished!

It took me all day yesterday but I finally finished it.  I've still to make a lid for it, but for now, it's finished!

It's got 3 different weaves in it, a border and a follow on trac border.  I enjoyed making it but was a bit knackered towards the end!  Can't wait until I'm more experienced.  Maybe then my thumbs and wrists wont hurt as much!

:)

Meetings - bloggers are real people - shock!

On Monday there was an encounter.   

An encounter of a powerful kind that happens very rarely in life.

I have had my blog for almost a year.  In that time I have been sceptical about it and thought it a bit weird.  However, I now understand the social aspect of it and that it is a priceless way to connect with people of like mind in a world where we are often bemused with life and can be so isolated.  

I have connected with some incredible people over the year.

So, three of us bloggers met up on Monday -  the fabulous glass artist and thinker of many gentle things; liZZie from My Generic Medium and the incredible needle-felt queen and inspirational toy artist; Gretel from Middle of Nowhere. (actually Gretel isn't quite in the middle of nowhere, she's just in the other direction to the one I took on the way to visit her. that's all).

It was a wonderful day, an insightful day, a day of 'bloody hells!' and other exclamations.  We explored a woodland that was simply beautiful.  An ancient place full of wild flowers and things for scoffing (which I have a penchant for!).  We sat in a welcoming home surrounded by interesting things and dozing, forgetful cats. 

We shared.  

The day was so full of the exploration and adventures of each others lives that I didn't manage to photograph much.  That's a wonderful thing and is a sign of a great day out.

I did manage to take a picture and here it is... 

... many of you might not be able to see what this picture has secreted away in it, but we know it's there.  :)  It was a perfect ending to our walk.  

This is a beautiful piece of glass work given as a gift to two of us.  It came in a little party bag full of other goodies and a strolling carrot.  Thank you!!!!

I'm probably not allowed to have this picture on my blog so it might disappear soon!  It is part of the day we had though, so here it is, for a bit.  Thank you too!!!!!

Thanks you two for being honest and real and open.  You are rare things in this world.  See you both very, very soon.  :)

Below is some pictures taken by liZZie  (over at my generic medium) of a basket I made for her cats...

Thanks for the photies Liz!!!!!

warm hugs and much love,

hen

x

Hurdles, Baskets and Objey

What absolutely wonderful weather we're having!  All springy and motivational!  The basket above is a 'Just Really Useful' basket.  

I managed to get out and finish my gate hurdle.  I'm really pleased with it, but have reservations about the fact that the willow was a bit kinky as it was too dry to weave with.  I might end up replacing loads of the weaving!

Tah dah!! Now I just have to fix the bottom of the hurdle to a length of wood and attach that to my gate.  Voila, collie proof and a bit of privacy!

Willow dashed in and took the spoils!

I am not normally house proud, but I decided to display our objey in my living room cubby hole.  Today I thought it looked quite nice.  So here it is!   

Have a wonderful weekend!!

hen

x

Berry Picking Basket

I experimented a bit with the handle of this basket.  I used such a lovely piece of Ash that I wanted to leave a bit of it exposed.  Using steamed willow to wrap the handle, but not filling all of the gaps, made a great contrast.  Well, I liked it, my friend said that it looked unfinished.  I told him to 'go away'.  He's  a pesk anyway, so his opinion never counts.

This basket was woven for The Shepton Witch.  I said a little prayer over it, in the hope it might imbue the basket with a little love and positivity for her healing and for very successful berry picking.  :)

hen

x

A Willowy Day of Weaving and Springshine

What a wonderful sight of baskets to come...

I went off and picked up my willow order from PH Coate in Somerset on Saturday.  It is sooOOooo exciting to have all of this ready and waiting to be prepared for baskety action!  I've now got a good selection of brown, steamed and buff willow.  

I spent Sunday pottering in the garden and trying to make it collie proof.  Which is impossible actually but I have to try.  I snuck away with some Lime tree cuttings someone had left in the gutter a month ago.  Finally I've found a good use for them!  I'm going to extend the height of our little gate with a hurdle.

I poked two of the Lime sticks into the ground the exact width apart that my gate is.  I then bent them over and wrapped them round each other to make the arch.

I poked a few more of the Lime sticks into the ground, tying them onto the arch with a bit of string.  

Then I took some of my pre-soaked willow (that had dried out, but still had a bit of bend in it) and did a pairing weave using two withies to hold all of the sticks together and give the hurdle it's strength.

Then I started to fill-in the gaps with some old pre-soaked (and only ever so slightly bendy now they're almost totally dried up!) steamed willow, using a normal in-out slew weave (I used two withies at a time).

It's not finished yet, I'll post up more pics as I go along and finally get it on the gate below.

   

I managed to get up a couple of hurdles to fill in the gaps either side of the gate using some willow I grew myself a couple of years ago.  Lots of lovely colours.  To see them properly you may have to click on the pic to make it bigger.

Willow didn't even notice they were there and jumped up and crashed into one!  It didn't fall over and stopped her escaping - result!

This is a little orange tree that was a gift to me one christmas a few years ago.  I got a little christmas tree decoration from PG over at Middle of Nowhere this christmas past and loved it so much I hung it on my orange tree, where it will stay.  I wanted to share it with you all as I think it's a great plant decoration!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and thank you for the kind words about the Foraging Basket!! :)

hen

xxx

Weaving, walking, wild gooseberries and wonder!

I've been feeling the electricity of the new season for the past week or so, especially with the blackbirds going so crazy in the evenings!  That and the snow remind me strongly of the importance of cycles and seasons.  It helps me to reflect on life and death, the beauty of one and the inevitability of the other.  The one making the way clear for the other.  The one motivating a deep appreciation of the other.

More basketry this weekend.  I am so happy with this basket, I really felt it all coming together with this one.  I love the handle, but I'm going to change it to a more traditional one as it is for somebody and I'm not sure they would want this handle, sturdy though it is! 

I've been so lucky to meet such wonderful people in blog land.  Annie had a garden giveaway on her blog Sensible Living and I received some amazing seeds in the post from her!  One set of seeds are from the oldest tobacco plant ever.  The seeds are from a plant grown from 1000 yr old seeds found in a burial site.  After I've checked that the seeds are ok for me to grow in this country I'll be getting on and sowing them!!  Can't wait! 

Kittyboo over at the Little Slice of Life blog sent me brilliant book on how to crotchet!  I have been inspired by her to learn after seeing some of her amazing creations.  She also inspired me to give marmalade a go too.  Now I've never liked marmalade, but this stuff I can't get enough of!  It's delicious!

Finally...  I finished my first ever sock.  It's amazing how it all comes together!  I'll be definitely knitting more!

The snowdrops are out in full force now.  Willow had a bad cut on her paw at the beginning of the week so she's been confined to the garden and a few short walks locally.

She was so happy to back on her woodland route doing her away's and being on collie business!  I'm not sure if I've ever told you about Willow's away's.  If we say 'away' to her she runs off in a massive circle around tree's or the edge of a field.  It's very collie behaviour and it's her business and very serious!  If she doesn't get to go 'away' on her walks we might as well not bother going!

The light over the weekend was so special.  It would only peep through the clouds momentarily,  oh, but when it did, *sigh*, the woods were magically transformed.  The Sun is certainly moving closer to us.  The light was so warm.

There are so many little nuggets of perfect beauty around us.

There are also many tasty nuggets in nature.  There were plenty of Ramson leaves out this weekend so I've scoffed some!  This is my favourite sandwich ever...

It's a tahini, ramson, tomato, onion and cheese sandwich.  Ok, ok, I know, it sounds a bit weird.  It is delicious an I wont hear a word said against it, at least until it's been tasted!!

In our local woods I found a patch of wild gooseberries.  It's a decent sized patch too.  

I know the photo's are hard to make out, but I thought I's share them here anyway!

So, that's pretty much a full summary of my weekend!  I'm going to be a bit sporadic over the next couple of weeks.  I hope you will all bear with me.  I'll be visiting blogs but will not have much time to leave decent comments, which is a real shame.  I'll be all back to normal soon though!

My Imbolc poem...

Be warm of heart and warm of nose

Be still, be love, 

keep toastie toes.

much love and warm hugs,

hen

xxx

Some things what I made over Christmas and that

Now, most of these pictures are really badly shot, as I forgot to take any when I had time and instead snapped them in bad light and as people were trying to leave the house!

This first basket is a 'Little Things' basket that I made for a lovely woman to give to her lovely someone...


This is a basket that I sold so it could be given to someone's lovely mum...


I gave this basket as a gift to my spangly best friend, the bean of spangledom. (Please forgive us our girliness, we can't help ourselves!)


My bro has this now, whether he wanted it or not!


My other bestfriend, we shall call him 'Ebob of no particular wit', puts his pants in this basket now. Unclean pants, I hear. tsk.


I gave the basket below to my aforementioned best friend, Ebob of no particular wit. He puts boys things in it. Pv tape, batteries, bits of string, speaker bits, 'noggits and tings' - whatever they are (smelly boys things no doubt)


I made this little bag for my squeeely spangle bean friend to keep her special stones and cards in. It's the 'horny trinity head bag' that I made on solitary retreat, which I turned into an actual bag, because that's really what it was!


So, I had a busy but lovely time! And everyone was very polite about their gifts too!!

Basket Week - The End

My self imposed basketry week is over! I am so chuffed with what I've learned by making these baskets. They're all based on basket recipes from a few books that I have. None of them are exactly what they should be, but that's because I like to fiddle!


The larger shopping baskets are awaiting handles (that's handle liners in them poking out) and the basket that already has a handle, needs it replacing with a stouter one. I've, rather cheesily, put a couple of twigs of corkscrew hazel in the basket vase thingy - I quite like it. Four of the baskets are already in use too, which is so satisfying because they are all structurally sound.

My mum came over today and was really taken with the 'basket/vase/thingy', which is lucky, as that's one of her christmas pressie's!

Tomorrow I'm going to put a more willow on to soak, this time for less time than I did with this batch, as they were slightly over-soaked. So next week I can start making all the christmas pressies!! Can't wait!

Hopefully I'll feel confident enough to start selling some of the baskets I make soon. I think people might like the 'basket/vase/thingy' (I need to think of a name for that!!), I enjoy making it too and it's my favourite basket so far.

If anyone wants to buy a basket for christmas or something, please feel free to ask. :o)

Any advice, on selling stuff, from you talented people out there would be very welcome! I've not really seen any baskets on Etsy or Folksy. Can you think of a reason for this? Postage shouldn't be too much of a problem? I'm going to apply my brain to this. Although I'd much rather apply it to making the baskets!

Thank you all so much for your kind words of encouragment. It means a lot to me and really does help to motivate me! Thank you. xx My fingers and wrists do need a rest now though, it actually aches to type! So I'll stop going on about baskets - for now!

hen

xx

Basketry week, cont...

I was making a kisheen basket yesterday when Leo and I realised that we liked it as it was - with no border.

I'm tempted to put one or two other dried, decorative twigs in it, or dried opium poppy heads or beech twigs... hmmmm, I'll give it a fiddle and see.

It would work well as a plant holder too, with maybe one of those indoor jasmines or something. Mind you, I like it natural so maybe I'll just leave it as it is...



If you want to see more detail you can click on the picture to make it bigger.

hen
x

Basketry week

I'm skiving off making another basket as my fingers and wrists are aching! I've made a basket or two every day this week so far and I'm learning more and more with each one I do. At the moment I'm making a basket based on an Irish kisheen basket.

The little basket in the picture, with the apples in, was the first I made this week and I found it very hard as I'd used withies that were too thick. So I decided to move on to making the easier, larger, shopping type baskets and practicing the different rands. The basket in the middle is waiting for a handle and the one on the far left I've decided to have as a chucking basket. The little basket at the front is a blackberry basket and is strong as anything. I'm always amazed at the strength of baskets.



I'm loving making baskets, in fact, I'm missing it now so I'm off back to the kisheen!!

hen
x

Spinning wool and a great use for my herb basket!

Now, at the risk of going on... I found a perfect use for the little basket I made. Inspired by Mrs L over at her blog 21st Century Housewife, I sat down and practiced my spinning. 4 hours I sat there! It's the first time I managed to fill the bobbin without giving up, so I was pleased! It's a twisty mess but it doesn't matter because not all of it is! I plan to knit a masterpiece with it, well a rustic, novelty masterpiece!



Having that little basket hanging there is perfect! Just for odds and ends and bits and bobs.




----------------
Now playing: Dick Gaughan - Banks Of Green Willow
via FoxyTunes

Making Willow Baskets - Jenny Pearce

Hello everybody,

I am back online and so I've been catching up on lots of internetty stuff. It's raining too so I don't feel too bad about it!

We are settled into our new house and as usual we have more 'stuff' then I am willing to accept. So I am going to open an Ebay shop and flog it all!

Since being offline I have been on a basketry course with Jenny Pearce. I have been wanting to do a course with her for ages and finally managed it! I love her style of basketry, beautiful and practical. Not overly fussy. Well, she was a great teacher and the group on the course were a lovely bunch of women.

The course was held at Canon Frome Court, a community I looked into moving to when I finished school. I didn't have enough money to at the time and so did 'other' things instead!



I didn't get any photos of the actual course unfortunately but here are some pictures of the baskets I made while I was there...




These aren't the most complicated baskets in the world, but they are a joy to make and solid too.


This little shopping basket is so strong! I am chuffed to bits at making my first ever handle and I'm quietly pleased at how tidy it all is!


This knot holds the handle in place and is made from the ends of the withies that are wrapping the handle bow.


There were four of us women sitting in a vague circle making these herb baskets. It felt so wonderful! A feeling of solid calm and industry descended on us. We mostly talked about the importance of outdoor experience for children.


This is the herb baskets bum. ***blush***


This is a platter, but really it is a stick basket without it's handle. A joy to make as it was so simple. I'm not sure about my finishing on the sides (a wee bit flouncy!) so might do what I was supposed to do and cut all the rods flush to the hoop! I love the curvyness of the six rods in the middle of the platter, so much so that I sneaked in a couple of pegs either end to make them more curvy making the triangle shape at the ends.


I am desperate to make another basket. This is what I was made for! It makes me so happy to have found my job in life! Making baskets! Even if there isn't much money to made from it!

Unfortunately I went and left my bodkin (a pointy tool for making spaces between a weave) mixed up in Jenny's course tools! Cripes knows when I'll get that back!

So, that's that then!

Good to be settled.