Twined Basketry Workshop
Friday 6 & Saturday 7 June, 10.00 - 16.00 (Two day course)
Tickets: £160 (Members £128), includes lunch & refreshments
Basketry, although widely thought to be the oldest craft technology, has little evidence remaining, being made from plant materials.
Examples of twined basketry, generally made from soft, flexible materials, are found worldwide: dilly-bags from Australia, kishies from the Shetland Isles, cedar root and bark baskets from the NW Coast of America, alongside examples from Europe. Traditional twining techniques have influenced many contemporary makers as well.
Twined basketry has recognisable similarities to 'stake & strand' basketry, used with materials such as cane and willow, where the rigidity of the materials creates structure, whereas in twined basketry, it is the density of the weave which provides structure and form.
In this workshop you will learn how to start a small twined basket, how to create a simple shape/form by adding stakes, how to work several colour patterns/texture by changing colours and materials, and simple approaches to finishing off.
We will work with a range of easily obtainable soft materials eg. jute, sisal, flax, wool, cotton, hemp, raffia, etc. All materials and equipment needed will be provided for the two-day workshop.
As with most basketry techniques, many variations are possible, depending on the scale and materials used for working.
In the workshop you will make one or two small baskets. Twining is a slow and meditative way of working - slow basketry! It is a technique which doesn't need a lot of preparation and can be worked small, so is easy to pick up/put down, work on a train journey, whilst watching TV, listening to the radio, or while chatting with friends.
During the two-day course you will have the opportunity to look at twined basketry in the Pitt Rivers Museum collections and you will be able to see further examples from the reserve collections laid out in the Conservation Laboratory, where the workshop will take place. Polly will also bring a few more examples from her personal collection.
Polly Pollock
Polly Pollock has been making and teaching basketry for many years - some of her early teaching days were at the Pitt Rivers Museum and she was a tutor at the first ever Oxford Summer School and for many years after that. She has exhibited her work widely throughout the UK and has been a tutor at the City Lit in London, where she still teaches on their unique 2-year part-time basketry course.
Polly's personal work combines basketry and stitched textile techniques, exploring themes of homemaking and nurture, damage, protection and repair. She works a lot with paper yarns, which she dyes using gentle eco-dyes to give soft and gentle colour palettes. Polly tries to ensure her work, albeit in small ways, avoids contributing to the mounting levels of waste in the world today.
Polly is a member of the Basketmakers' Association, Oxfordshire Basketmakers and the Textile Study Group. She currently has work in the Textile Study Group's exhibition Making 50.
