All About Willow

24/01/2025

20/01/2025

It’s a cold but sunny January day – there’s snow on the peaks of the Isle of Rum across the sea. We are on Catherine and Pascal’s croft, under the cliffs on the North side o…

04/02/2023

Join Heritage Crafts in conversation with Allan Brown and Dylan Howitt on Zoom at 7pm on Wednesday 22 February, to talk about their new film The Nettle Dress.

Allan is a spinner, dyer and weaver of local foraged fibres from around his home in Brighton and the South Downs. Best known for his experiments and expertise using locally-foraged stinging nettles to produce cloth, he spent seven years making a nettle dress by hand, re-learning ancient crafts along the way.

Beautifully filmed by award-winning documentary maker Dylan Howitt, their film The Nettle Dress follows Allan’s whole journey through all the seasons and years, foraging, spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing the cloth to the final dress.

The Nettle Dress is Dylan’s second feature length film made for cinematic release.

To book, please click https://allanbrowninconversation.eventbrite.co.uk.

03/09/2021

Biggest rectangular basket we have made so far. Commission from Scottish Opera for their new Falstaff production. 1.6m long x 0.9m wide x 0.7m high. The brief was that it had to be strong but light without any metal reinforcement inside. It had to be lifted up by 4 people with a 17.5st Tennor inside and turned upside down. We used a creel knot to insert the weavers to add strength.

17/08/2021

Willow backpack from organic willow grown on our Croft on Eigg

01/06/2021

Fishing creel (without hole in lid) going to the US. This is the basket that we made for "Clare Fraser" in , series one or two, can't remember. She used it as a foraging baskets to collect her herbs so our customer wanted the same. fishingbaskets

27/05/2021

A pair of tall, slim log baskets going to the Isle of Skye.

09/04/2021

Hello.......we have been closed for a wee while to catch up on orders and to cut this year's willow harvest which we finished last month. We have around 5000 willow stools, spread over two fields. Depending on variety, each stool is now producing between 30 to 100 rods per stool....a lot of willow. We were supposed to have a German basketry student for five months this year to help but alas, due to Covid, this could not happen. The last picture is of me chipping live willow on to the garden soil as a ramial wood mulch to encourage mycorrhizal fungi......hope it works 😉

03/02/2021

Last of January's orders completed. Thank you to all our customers for their continued support. We will be CLOSED for two months from now until the 1st of April. We need to focus on current orders and harvest our willow for this year. If there is something that you consider urgent then please contact us.

08/01/2021

First of the new year orders. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers and our followers for their continued support of our work and for their appreciation of an endangered, heritage craft. It sustains us. Also all the basketmakers out there and those learning our craft, you are our inspiration 💗

11/12/2020

We have one of these log baskets left in stock. I'm sorry to say that we cannot take anymore orders for delivery before Christmas.
Due to workload, the earliest delivery date will be the end of January/Beginning of February.