We have created a place on the Wildart Trail called the 'Coppice Demonstration Area'. This is a flexible space where copicing techniques and skills are displayed, demonstrated and and this case practical workshops carried out. On this occasion by Alan Sage, who ran this 'willow weaving techniques' workshop for Students at Christ Church University and staff from the Kent Wildlife Trust.
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| Anticipation: looking in Alan's basket of tools |
I'm unable to pass on the skills we learned on this blog, but we learned discrete knots to join work together, how to add shapes onto a form that your already working on, plaiting, basic basket weaving and unusual hair pins?
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| 'and that's all there is to it'! |
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| unusual hair pins |
The previous workshop we had created large ants, using a random weaving technique, but this was much more structured and required concentration to follow systematic repeated sequences. Speaking from a peronal view point I found that almost every length of willow I use...somehow I manage to kink, creating weak points, combined my reluctance or lazyness to chop off the stouter portions or 'butts' which then warp my creations out of shape, as the forces I have created within the structure compete. I wrestled for a long time with my fish, which in the end was a conifer tree. Other people managed fins, gills, tails and patterns for scales.
The final exercise was to cretae a sun flower and I had more success. A very enjoyable day, thanks again to Kent Wildlife Trust for oranising this and thanks to Alan Sage for passing his considerable knowledge on.
Here is a link to a slide show covering the days activities click here
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