Date 9-10 August 2025 (2 Days)
Price £220
Maximum number of places 8
Book Use this link to book a place or contact Anna by email: annatalamh@googlemail.com or phone 07728 388029
Course Details
The basketmaking course is run in a covered workshop in a woodland setting over two days. Campers are welcome to arrive from Friday evening and spend time around the fire, ready for a Saturday morning start.
On this course you will learn the techniques needed to make a medium-sized oval willow trug basket that will be ideal for foraging and gathering. You will be able to choose between adding one central handle or 2 side handles to suit its purpose.
We will focus on:
· Material selection. Learn how to select the right size and thickness of willow rods for the different parts of the basket.
. How to set the frame and ribs in position and choose from different colours of willow rods to weave and personalise the rest of your basket.
Who is this course suitable for?
· This course is suitable for complete beginners and improvers.
Depending on progress, it may be possible to move on to making an additional woven willow tray on day two, repeating some of the techniques.
Other Information
All materials and tools will be provided. Willow weaving is a physical craft, and we will be working with damp willow throughout the day so comfy, old clothes and an apron (if preferred) are ideal for the workshop.
Catering:
For all courses, a hearty, healthy lunch is provided (please let your tutor know of any dietary requirements when booking), along with tea, coffee and water. Breakfast and evening meal is self-catered, with firewood and charcoal-based cooking available.
We also provide firewood, brew-kit, washing up and cooking facilities, crockery and cutlery.
Guests should bring; barbecue food or pans for cooking on a fire for breakfast and evening meals.
Facilities:
Facilities include covered workshop spaces, an undercover outdoor cooking set-up, comfortable compost toilet, plenty of loo roll, and handwashing. A good stone track leads to the the wood where there is space to park, please keep speed under 10mph.
Tutor Bio
Anna Liebmann is a greatly respected basketmaker who has taught for the Basketmakers Association, Central Scotland School of Crafts, Northumbria Basketmakers Group, Outdoor Woodland Learning Scotland, and Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, to name just a few. Anna has her own range of work, which she creates at her Studio by the sea in Edinburgh. Traditional functional baskets of the British Isles are her inspiration, teamed with colourful Scottish willows many of which she grows herself.
Nature and history pass through Anna’s hands as she weaves using willow she grows, cuts, sorts and prepares herself. She also uses willow that was grown elsewhere in Scotland organically or conventionally in Somerset. Every year in the early spring you will find Anna in the willow patch with friends, harvesting the year’s crop, hand weeding and restocking for next year. The first crop was cut from the willow patch in 2005, the year her daughter was born. Anna grows eight types of willow in the patch, of different colours, hues and elasticity. Some of them are stout, making them ideal for a basket’s skeleton. Others are long and slender, and can be woven in and out of small spaces. Anna aims to contrast the dappled hues of the different willow barks within her work. Through the year, particularly as she is creating baskets and forms using her home-grown willow, the affection for the material carries on through the work. The baskets are things of beauty; sturdy and precise.