Organic Matters
  • Home
  • What's on offer!
    • Willow Workshops >
      • Workshop bookings
      • Register your interest
      • Basketry
      • Garden structures & fencing
      • Anything else!
      • Living willow workshop
      • Festive weaving
    • The Pod
    • Schools Programme
    • Willow Sculpture
    • Willow Hurdles
    • Willow Craft
    • Living Willow
  • Contact & Newsletter
    • Subscribe & past issues
  • Gift Vouchers
  • Testimonials
  • Links

Living Willow Workshop

9/3/2015

0 Comments

 
I spent the most wonderful day on Saturday 7th March at The Lighthouse at Tytherington working with three lovely ladies to create a living willow tunnel attached to a dome overlooking the beautiful lake and surrounding countryside.  The weather was so kind to us and we stopped for a lovely lunch provided Café Nouveau and sat out on the terrace in the most welcome sunshine. 

I ran it as a workshop and the Lighthouse paid the balance of the cost of the day which worked out really well and I will plan to do the same at another venue next winter.  If anyone knows or can think of a venue that might like a living willow creation at a discounted rate please get in touch.
Setting up
The main structure
Picture
0 Comments

Mud, mud glorious mud!

17/2/2014

0 Comments

 
It's been a while since I've written anything here but its about time I did.  So I'm not going to go over past ground I shall just kick off with recent activities.

I've just had the pleasure of working with Shoscombe and Wellow Schools.  Day one working with Shoscombe school was spent inside, thankfully.  All the children made the lovely spiral bird feeders.  Some of them made fish, which is a new addition to the selection.  Using my beautiful coloured willow recently bought from Dick Willows near Bath, they created some colourful works of art!

The next day was outside making a 14 metre living willow fedge to border their forest school area.  6 hours later, lots of rain, loads of mud we finished and every child in the school had some kind of input, even if it had just been to help each other push a withy into the ground.  They loved it so much they've asked me to go back and do a dome after half term!

The following week was a similar programme at Wellow school.  Interestingly the weaving workshops were run using a different format as Shoscombe School.  Both worked well and both had pros and cons.  On the second day we built a 3 metre dome and there I had a small group of pupils to help, which actually was easier and they really got a lot out of being so involved.  We even encountered some snow that morning but with some hot chocolate and biscuits waiting for us at half time we soldiered on!

The workshops had been funded by the Comenius Project where together with schools from across Europe they are looking at and sharing idea around the very broad theme of 100! I was asked to incorporate '100' somehow into my workshops.  I give a short talk about willow before a workshop so thought I could incorporate it into that somehow.  However nothing was particularly forthcoming when I looked online.  Then a friend turned up with a beautiful book she had found in a charity shop called 'Willow'.  The author is an artist called Kate Lynch who whilst painting people at their work, mainly willow weavers and workers she had recorded their conversations and some of these have been used alongside her paintings to create a wonderful fabric of history and experiences in the withy beds of the Somerset Levels.  One of these conversations had been about willows uses in the First World War.  This information had been perfect to pass onto the pupils, they were fascinated by the fact that huge wicker baskets had been used to drop supplies down to the troops, they'd bend out of shape but not break, ammunition was carried in baskets also the carrier pigeons that played such a major role in the war were carried around in wicker baskets.  It was so important that if you were a willow grower you may have been lucky enough to not even have to go to war!


0 Comments

Visit to Wells WI

9/11/2012

0 Comments

 
On Tuesday 6th November I had been invited to visit the Wells WI to give a short talk about what I do, and to actually make something with them all.  After some previous discussion with their President, Lucy we decided that the wrapped willow star would be the most sensible as there may be up to 75 ladies.....and there was! 

I had never spoken in front of that many people before and was pretty nervous.  I think that the ladies of the Wells WI were probably a very good starting point for my initiation into public speaking!  Not that I plan to do a lot of it I might add!  My demonstration went without a hitch, thank goodness, as willow can have a mind of it's own at the most inopportune moment!  I think every single lady had a go and I hope that everyone ended up taking something home with them.  So thank you to them all and I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did after my initial nerves!

I look forward to doing something similar with the Frome WI in the New Year and if anyone else would like to discuss a visit to their local group please get in touch.
0 Comments

Last of the summer willow courses

17/9/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Not quite sure where the summer went or if we even had one!  However I think we had it for one day at the Walled Garden at Mells in July!  We had the most glorious weather for a full day workshop with four lovely people!  The wonderful long terrace out the back of the garden lends itself perfectly to making the plant teepees and it was so hot that at one point in the afternoon we had to seek shade for a coffee break.  However the noisy chatter of the cafe area soon had us returning to the peace and tranquility of our beautiful terrace to finish off our flowers and dragonflies!  I love to see each persons individuality come through with what they make and that is very much the beauty of working with willow.  So once again great company, great creations and what a beautiful setting to be able to work from.

Picture
This weekends courses have had a certain celebratory theme with someone at each venue enjoying their birthday treat!  We were lucky to be able to enjoy being outside in the morning to make some beautiful plant teepees with the added benefit of being able to warm up inside with the decidedly autumnal chilliness of the afternoon.

Due to further interest in these courses I have decided to run them for another weekend in October before the festive courses in November.  If you are interested in one of these, this will be the last chance until next spring, please book here. 

Mary x

0 Comments

The sun finally shone on us at Brokerswood!

15/7/2012

1 Comment

 
My first willow course at Brokerswood this afternoon was a great success and the sun even shone for a while!  We used the activity centre to avoid the mud but were able to enjoy being out under the trees when we stopped for a well deserved coffee break!  Everyone went home with some lovely creations and a few achy fingers!  I'm really looking forward to running some festive courses there in the autumn, further dates to be confirmed.  I'm taking off most of August to have time with my boys but will be contactable if anyone wants to book courses or find out more information. Mary x
1 Comment

We popped up on Paul Street!

1/7/2012

0 Comments

 
I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend of 'Eclectic Horticulture' at the Paul Street Pop up Shop, Frome organised by Marina Swinburne.  Running alongside the Frome Artisan Market and Frome Flea we were pretty busy today with a quieter but steady day yesterday.  As always with these events I chatted to lots of lovely interesting people, swopped ideas and hopefully made some more exciting future contacts.  The shop looked fab thanks to Marina's hard work setting it all up and i think we all complemented each other very well.
0 Comments

A very enjoyable afternoon at the Walled Garden at Mells

20/5/2012

0 Comments

 
Spent the afternoon yesterday at the beautiful Walled Garden at Mells running a half day workshop, great company and great creations!  We were lucky with the weather, the sun even shone momentarily. 
Picture
These courses are going to be a good learning curve for me.  Balancing the time it takes people to make things, who are of mixed ability, with offering value for money is quite tricky, hopefully we didn't do too badly on Saturday.  Everyone seemed happy with what they were taking home even if it was an hour later than planned!  My youngest participant was 9 yrs old which was a good exercise for me to see how well she coped as I'm in the process of piloting a schools willow workshop.  Thanks to Imogen i can see that although a challenge for her she was able to take home as much as all the others
0 Comments

Brokerswood Country park

6/3/2012

0 Comments

 
Today i visited Brokerswood Country Park to see if they would be interested in running some willow courses.  I'm very excited at how keen they were!  I will post details as soon as they contact me but they will be run on a similar basis to the ones at the Walled Garden at Mells. 

I've also been working today on a living willow dome made from some willow prunings kindly ffered by someone I met at the Frome Seed Swap.  I've helped her out by pruning her rather over zealous willow tree on her allotment so she has allowed me to create this lovely 'fairy den' for a friend who will be giving me shiatsu to help with my various aches and pains!  All with no money changing hands - love it!
0 Comments

My first blog - ever!

29/2/2012

0 Comments

 
I thought it was about time i started doing a blog and no better time to start than after my first market of the year.  The Frome Seed Swap and Potato day on it's third year running seemed to be a great success as always for all taking part.  This was my first year with a stall there, previous years i had been on the other side!  I'm very lucky to have found a medium to work with that makes it very easy to have a nice looking stall.  Having done some Christmas markets, setting up this time was a lot more relaxing and enjoyable! 
The thing i love about markets is all the wonderful people that you get to talk to, some real characters with some great ideas and people who have a genuine interest in what you're doing.  Actual sales weren't brilliant, the dragonflies and spiral lanterns sold quite well and one of my baskets found a new home.  But that didn't matter as i made some really good and interesting contacts for future events and a lot of interest in the courses I'm going to hold at The Walled Garden at Mells.  See the courses page for more information and booking details.  So the buzz and preparation is over for now and it's time to prepare for the next event in the Organic Matters diary, the first course at the Walled Garden on 24th March. 
I'll be out collecting hazel in the woods wherever i can get my hands on it throughout the month.  Hard work but what a wonderful environment to be working in. I also had some kind offers of willow prunings which I'll be taking up over the next week or so and plan to turn them into a living willow dome before the planting season comes to an end..  Of course any orders for plant climbers will take priority.  So if you fancy one for your sweet peas or veggies please contact me asap and put your order in.  I'll need to make a run down to the somerset levels towards the end of next week to buy some more willow.  Please bear in mind it needs to be soaked for about a week before i can use it so you're looking at a 2 week wait to be safe.
We have some exciting plans ahead with regards to growing our own willow and expanding the vegetable side of things at home, will keep you updated of any developments. 
I'm also going to start a monthly newsletter that you can subscribe to.  Watch this space!
Thanks for reading,
Mary x
0 Comments

    Author

    Mary Cross

    Archives

    March 2015
    February 2014
    November 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.