tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58287394926548894342024-02-08T02:04:22.748+01:00Lois WalpoleLois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-7424502571868075022023-10-15T12:58:00.000+02:002023-10-15T15:07:20.762+02:00Salt and other Basket Fairs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPX1cNscjr2kJ5kKTwcFGr8URfA0QLxWCzcqhdgzY_y3BsprPbMkz3-098ynUgUx7a5nMIbEKn55Fibi0LW4GfCa9iLZobSX6bI-4uU0t78XqeO_3RC47Qq2lUKtV40rDU0HVBgwiA-DzTiQTcbiFqGb9KJ57E64wj1RjSUYPvzhyphenhyphenMuQvZ37TM8x5YXT4/s4032/IMG_0936.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPX1cNscjr2kJ5kKTwcFGr8URfA0QLxWCzcqhdgzY_y3BsprPbMkz3-098ynUgUx7a5nMIbEKn55Fibi0LW4GfCa9iLZobSX6bI-4uU0t78XqeO_3RC47Qq2lUKtV40rDU0HVBgwiA-DzTiQTcbiFqGb9KJ57E64wj1RjSUYPvzhyphenhyphenMuQvZ37TM8x5YXT4/s320/IMG_0936.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal">This year I was lucky to be invited back to Salt on the
outskirts of Girona in Catalonia for the 25<sup>th</sup> International Basketry
Fair. My invitation was to create a large basket with the help of members of
the public. This is such a nice event that I accepted with pleasure. This was my
third visit to this two-day fair and the prospect of meeting up with friends
and fellow makers, all of whom are treated with such respect and generosity by
the Catalan Basketmakers Association <a href="https://cistell.cat/">https://cistell.cat/</a>
and the town, makes it too good to miss. There are now quite a few basketry
fairs in Europe some are bigger than Salt, the World Wicker and Weaving
Festival in Poland, the Korbmarkt in Lichtenfels, Germany and the Fêtes
de la Vannerie at Vallebrègue in France are examples, none of which I have been to,
but I have heard mixed reports about all of them.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I was asked by several makers in Salt if we had any events
like this in UK and I had to say no. We don’t have any fairs that have run annually
for 25 years (Covid years excepted). I believe the last event that was similar
was in Porthleven in 2001 when Geraldine Jones and Hilary Burns of Basketry and
Beyond, <a href="https://www.basketryandbeyond.org.uk/">https://www.basketryandbeyond.org.uk/</a>
organised the Porthleven Makers Festival in Cornwall. They invited
international makers whose work had strong connections with the sea and by all
accounts it was an excellent event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do
have one day events that crop up here and there, there is, for example, a one-day
event in Lewes at the end of October this year, and a lot of residential
workshops are organised in UK but nothing like Salt. It seems to me that there are lots of factors involved that
all need to come together to make an event like Salt, and so far that has not
happened in UK.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Salt is a success because it is a collaboration between the
Catalan Basketmakers Association (most of whose members live reasonably close) and
the town of Salt and its residents, so everybody is catered for, and everyone has
an opportunity to get involved in some way or another even if it is just
hanging baskets on your balcony, it all adds up. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkvHHSNX6c6Pn0hlXEz7xPg9MgDa4U2U2zl0AVXMrfZEp07Vfud_qTBKCgfSZogD-2OjQyBxGcGECTT9WZd-3uetvqjh86zN7bzEYc7GWhWPZHZvq3ENTppjdiP9QyC0P3EYvYbUgR8fJgw5KqCPeH-J0zq7XOU6zYI9vQ8n6_uC5SKxFRzzSmbtv0hLU/s3264/IMG_20231006_103350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkvHHSNX6c6Pn0hlXEz7xPg9MgDa4U2U2zl0AVXMrfZEp07Vfud_qTBKCgfSZogD-2OjQyBxGcGECTT9WZd-3uetvqjh86zN7bzEYc7GWhWPZHZvq3ENTppjdiP9QyC0P3EYvYbUgR8fJgw5KqCPeH-J0zq7XOU6zYI9vQ8n6_uC5SKxFRzzSmbtv0hLU/s320/IMG_20231006_103350.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal">The fair has a theme each year and this year it was ‘Contemporary’
some years it is a country that is in focus, and for 13 years there has been a
competition with both traditional and contemporary categories. This year there
were 3 exhibitions in different locations, plus the installation of a willow and cement sculpture
in a square by Klaus Titze, a film about the history of the Fair, a talk by
Karen Gossart and Quentin Corentin <a href="https://www.oseraiedelile.com/">https://www.oseraiedelile.com/</a>
about their work, (the making side of which was on show in their exhibition “
Jeux de Courbes”), a parade of giants, a traditional folk dance for all with
live traditional music, several mini workshops, and of course lots of baskets
for sale. The local bars and restaurants and hotels do a very good trade over
the weekend and the on-site food and drinks are not expensive. What more can
you ask for? </p><p class="MsoNormal">We could do all of this in UK, but the UK is about eight times
bigger than Catalonia and deciding where it should be and finding a town
willing to invest in it is a much trickier prospect, the weather is also a
factor. Perhaps it does rain at Salt some years, but it has always been warm
and sunny when I have been there.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most of the makers I spoke to were reasonably happy with
their sales, but all of them said they didn’t come for the sales, they came to
spend time with fellow makers. Basketry can be quite a solitary activity, and because
we are constantly encouraged to ‘market’ ourselves in every aspect of our lives,
it’s really good to learn that despite what you think you are seeing on social
media, very few of us sell out at our exhibitions or fairs, but that most of us
are very happy doing what we do, despite ‘marketing’ (which very few of us
enjoy doing)!<o:p></o:p></p>Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-27444197549477399532019-10-17T11:14:00.000+02:002019-10-17T11:15:29.888+02:00Dordogne, Berkshire, Catalonia (Part 3 Catalonia)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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From Reading to Catalonia to arrive in the last hour of the annual basket fair in Salt on the outskirts of Girona, so I made a quick dash around to try and see as much as possible before it closed. The Fair is organised by the Catalan Basketmakers Association who had invited me to run a post fair course for some of their members. On the Monday a group of us headed out of Girona to Toroella de Montgri to visit <a href="http://tramats.cat/">Josep and Magdas workshop/shop.</a> Set in a narrow street it had a cave like feel, filled with basketry, materials and chairs for restoration and where in a dark corner a female ‘gigante’ watches over everything.<br />
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On to the house that the association had rented for the course set on a ‘slow’ farm in the countryside, then off to the beach at the mouth of the river Ter to gather both beach flotsam and maritime rush <i>Juncus acutus</i>. Never having had a chance to handle this version of rush before I now understand why it is used to make fish traps and baskets like the <a href="http://carlosfontales.blogspot.com/2018/12/saranda-conferencia-y-homenaje.html"><i>saranda</i></a> - it is very tough. Josep taught us how to pull it from the plant in two movements but some plants surrendered their rushes much more easily than others!<br />
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There were 13 students, Italian, French, Venezuelan and Spanish, most of whom are professional makers who had just had a hard weekend of selling at the fair so I offered them an opportunity to ‘play’ and to experiment rather than to impose specific techniques on them. But I did ask them only to use materials that were free. In fact some purchased materials were brought to the workshop and used towards the end and the machine split chestnut bands were perfect for certain techniques. It would be great if someone in UK could make those, or ash or hazel ones for us. Anyone know a wood/coppice/forestry business that might take it on, or at least give it a go? I am sure there would be a market for them.<br />
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Instead of completed items I brought lots of my technical samples for them to examine, they could choose any techniques they would like to learn and I asked them to make something that could be carried on the body without using the hands to hold whatever they made. We only had two days to work in and at the end of the second day the makers performed a catwalk wearing their creations. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/palucirelpalmito/?hl=en">Antonios </a> plaited palmito nose cone for stabbing flies whilst working was just one of many gems!<br />
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As always it was a real pleasure to be in the company of fellow makers and my thanks to Josep and the Catalan Basketmakers for inviting me to share some time with them, to<a href="http://www.idoiacuesta.com/"> Idoia</a> and Severine for translations from French to Spanish, to Mari for taking photos and setting up a Whats app group, to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/caalcs/?hl=es">Carles,</a> Francoise, <a href="https://macollacreativa.com/artistas/julio-loaiza/">Julio</a> and many others for cooking skills, Magda for the lift to the station and to all of them for ‘playing’ and experimenting.<br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-83279112107647057782019-10-16T13:17:00.001+02:002019-10-18T12:22:37.402+02:00Dordogne, Berkshire, Catalonia (Part 2 Berkshire)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shetland kishie in MERL collection (atypical base)</td></tr>
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From Perigueux to Reading for a symposium about endangered baskets, organised jointly by the <a href="https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/">Heritage Crafts Association</a>, the <a href="https://basketmakersassociation.org.uk/">Basketmakers’ Association</a> and the <a href="https://www.basketmakersco.org/">Worshipful Company of Basketmakers</a> and hosted at the <a href="https://merl.reading.ac.uk/">Museum of English Rural Life</a> at Reading University. The event was fully booked and apparently the same number of people had to be turned away due to lack of space, which was a shame. The aim was to try to develop a strategy for saving the knowledge of those baskets that are considered to be in danger of disappearing and to that end four of us gave talks. My talk was about the Shetland kishie, Mary Butcher spoke about several English basket forms and techniques that are in danger, Hilary Burns about the research that she has been conducting into English basketry over many years, Stephanie Bunn about the considerable work that she has done with Woven Communities for the Scottish Tradition and Jenny Crisp on the lack of more formal education for willow cultivation as well as basket making skills.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Kishie, Cullivoe, Yell (typical)</td></tr>
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At lunchtime we had an opportunity to look at baskets in the museum store. There are two straw kishies in the collection from Shetland but neither are typical because the bases are quite different to most of the ones I have seen in Shetland.<br />
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In the afternoon we broke into groups to discuss various topics. The group I found myself in had sustainability as its theme and included several professional willow growers who outlined the many problems they face. I was not surprised to hear one grower admit to using banned chemicals on his willow crop because he grows vast monocultures of Black Maul. I know I have been banging on about this for years and making myself unpopular in the process, but it’s still going on. It’s the total disconnect between people and place that results in individual basketmakers working with materials that they have not harvested or grown themselves and I suppose it must be the profit motive that makes commercial willow growers destroy their landscape and environment to satisfy their market. According to one grower, a large amount of sales are to people who are weaving sculptures and coffins, both of which require huge amounts of willow. At least one grower even imports willow from Eastern Europe to satisfy this market. A willow coffin or basket made with chemically sprayed willows may be a ‘natural’ product but it is certainly not an environmentally friendly or a sustainable one.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In front of a monocultural plantation of Black Maul in Somerset 1982 - little has changed.</td></tr>
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Chemical pesticides and fungicides were first available to farmers on a large scale in the 1950’s. Britains basket industry was at its biggest and most profitable prior to that in the early 20thCentury when thousands of willow baskets were being made for all sorts of purposes. They achieved this without the aid of Monsanto, ICI, Bayer, et al and I see no reason why it cannot be done again. </div>
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When you think about it, it is obvious that any willow plantation is going to be vulnerable to pests and diseases because we plant the willows in lines bang up next to each other to make them grow straight, we then force them to make lots of new shoots by chopping their heads off every year, we seldom fertilise and we tend to plant single varieties which means that if one gets infested they all do. Added to this heavy tractors instead of lightweight horses are now used to cut (and spray) the willows on large plantations thus compacting the soil round the roots, so it’s no wonder the willows give up after 10 years or so of this onslaught. It’s time to re think the whole business of growing willow as a crop, there has to be a better way. I have read that there is a bacteria that can kill rust on willows and any other infected plants that is completely harmless to the environment or man, but I imagine it is not that easy to get hold of because one of the big chemical companies will have made sure they have the patent or they will have buried the research!</div>
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It was good to have a chance to discuss these things and to catch up with friends and fellow makers and to meet some people I had only previously ‘met’ on social media.<br />
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Hopefully a comprehensive strategy for documenting some of our endangered baskets that are languishing in national Museum stores will emerge from this event along with other activities to preserve the knowledge stored in these baskets. My thanks to Mary Lewis at Heritage Crafts for inviting me to contribute to the day. It was certainly food for thought.<br />
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Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-29886703536260464352019-10-16T11:37:00.001+02:002019-10-18T10:24:46.323+02:00Dordogne, Berkshire, Catalonia (Part 1 Dordogne)<br />
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During last week, three unrelated events took me to a French lycee in Perigueux, a museum in Berkshire and a basketry fair in Catalonia. The self-employed life has always been like that and I have learnt that, you have to take opportunities when they are offered because turning them down, however genuine the cause, hurts the proposer and they seldom repeat the invitation. It was mentally taxing doing all three, one after the other, but my carbon footprint was considerably reduced by linking the three events together and that was important for me.<br />
I have divided this blog into 3 separate posts to make it a tad more digestible!<br />
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When I was invited to do an ‘intervention’ at the Lycee Albert Claveille in Perigueux, I liked the proposal very much but was anxious about how I could actually achieve everything. The brief was to give a talk about my work and to teach 105 fifteen to eighteen year old pupils some basic basketry techniques in the space of about 4 and a half hours. All of this to be done in French, which for someone who failed French O level, is an achievement in itself.<br />
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Never having taught in a Lycee I had no idea what to expect. But I am a great believer in preparation because if I have done as much of it as I possibly can and done it as well as I know how, the chances are things will work out in the end. It also helps hugely to have someone in the school who has thought of everything from their point of view too. I was very lucky to have Celine, one of the applied arts teachers, initiate the project and plan it extremely well with 5 teachers, 4 classrooms and video projection for the practical instruction. I did the talk first, then three demonstrations, which were projected so all pupils could see, then they were split into 4 groups each with a teacher and I went from room to room. In the end it was a very positive experience for me as the pupils listened attentively, asked lots of intelligent questions and then made 3 different samples from recycled paper or card in random weave, diagonal plaiting and hexagonal plaiting (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/LYCEE-Albert-Claveille-589288837911319/">more photos in the schools facebook link here )</a><br />
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The applied arts teachers will continue the project using polypropylene strapping tape and I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with. <br />
Thanks to <a href="https://www.oseraiedelile.com/">Karen Gossart and Corentin Laval</a> for suggesting me to the school.<br />
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One of the teachers, S. Frangeul, brought in some baskets from his personal collection and this one I found particularly interesting. He told me it was a dough basket from the Dordogne and that he also had a smaller one at home. It has a linen lining common on dough baskets but the shape and the random weave were unlike any other bread raising basket I have ever seen. It is a big basket maybe 70cms long and looks more like a flower basket to me. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has come across any others like this.<br />
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Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-17213825006336657342018-11-29T12:08:00.002+01:002019-10-18T10:26:30.018+02:00Living Willow in Euskadi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo: Carlos Fontales Ortiz</td></tr>
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An invitation to return to Spain, or more specifically Euskadi, to create a living willow structure was eagerly accepted by me.<br />
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I sometimes wonder why I don't spend more time in Spain because I always enjoy being there so much. Perhaps it's just that the people who work in the basketry field are particularly nice, but I don't really think so, it seems to me that the people I come across just enjoy being sociable more than those of us living further north. A couple of years ago I read an article comparing primary education in European countries and it suggested that one of the goals of primary education in Spain is to turn children into social creatures who enjoy the company of others and feel at ease in groups. Well if this weekend was anything to go by they succeed, as it could not have been more sociable or enjoyable at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/garaion.naturartea">Garaion Sorgingunea</a> near Vitoria/Gasteiz in the Basque region.<br />
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Garaion is a an Association that works to preserve the Basque language, heritage and the natural environment through cultural activities and the weekend was full of them. An exhibition of the work of local textile artists, a theatre performance with an audience of almost 100 and a 2 day living willow workshop run by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/joan.farreoliver">Joan Farre</a> and <a href="https://m.facebook.com/carlos.fontalesortiz">Carlos Fontales Ortiz</a>. I was invited to join in to create an artwork in the grounds to add to the collection of living and dry willow structures done in previous years by Carlos, Joan, Tim Johnson, Corentin Laval and Karen Gossart. In the summer months Garaion runs an action packed summer camp for groups of children, many of whom have little other opportunity to be in the countryside.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Mirador' and work done in previous years by Joan and Carlos (photo: Carlos)</td></tr>
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I haven't done a living willow structure for some years, but I had developed an idea for one, for another project, a couple of years ago that didn't in the end go ahead, so I took that as a starting point and developed it further. It is a 'lookout', a bit like a hide for bird watching, a small enclosed space with openings that frame the views for humans of all heights. I have called it 'Mirador', until I find out what the Basque word is. At the moment it is skeletal but by summer it will be clothed in greenery and become a more intimate space until the leaves fall next autumn when the coloured tubes will reveal themselves again. The tubing is normally used for burying cables and is not designed to be in UV light so I have no idea how long it will survive in the light, for sure they will fade. But at the moment I am happy with the way it has turned out, we will see what the weather, schoolchildren and the sunshine do to it. The setting of Garaion is stunning as it sits on top of a small hill in the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains and fields, rivers and lakes with no other buildings in sight, despite being only a kilometre from the nearest village. The weather can change quickly there and we were very lucky to have 3 dry days to work in.<br />
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My thanks go firstly to Carlos for suggesting me for the task and for taking some beautiful photos for me after I had left. Next thanks to Amaia and Julia for inviting me and being such fantastic organisers and hosts, then to the people who helped me make the work, particularly Saioa and Josune, (in the photo above) without whom I could not have finished in time. But also to all the other lovely people I met there who with their big hugs made me feel so welcome.<br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-81345955467770973722018-03-25T19:10:00.001+02:002018-03-25T19:13:16.416+02:00Farting About<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Weaving Ghosts at An Lanntair</i></td></tr>
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According to the Oxford English Dictionary ‘farting about’ seems the best way to describe the current post-exhibition phase of my work cycle. It’s always hard getting back into it when I have been away from the studio for a few weeks. <br /><br />It wasn’t possible to be at <a href="http://lanntair.com/">An Lanntair </a>in Stornoway to set up <i>Weaving Ghosts</i> so I was keen to go and see if my written instructions had enabled Roddy Murray and the gallery staff at An Lanntair to install it as I wanted. Barring problems to do with lighting (which meant the shadows on <i>The Ossuary </i>were not as intended) and the very high ceilings that prevented the installation of <i>Hoose</i>, (hopefully I will get another chance to install it somewhere else) the exhibition looked good in the space. I was particularly happy with <i>North Atlantic Drift </i>because the spacing between the individual baskets was perfect (not easy with 70 plus baskets all different shapes and sizes), so my thanks to Roddy Murray for that. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>North Atlantic Drift</i> and <i>There Were 15 To Feed At Midbrake </i></td></tr>
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The 8 schools workshops for children aged between 5 and 13 were full on but I had very generous help from two members of the <i><a href="http://www.scottishbasketmakerscircle.org/">Scottish Basketmakers Circle</a></i>, Dawn Susan and Angela Price along with JJ plus staff from the schools and An Lanntair, for which I am very grateful. Thanks are particularly owing to Moira for her organisation and communication skills and to Joe for his knowledgeable and willing practical aid. A gallery talk and an interview on BBC Radio Scotland were also packed into 4 days.<div>
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<br />Exhibitions are really important for me, without them I don’t do much in the studio. I love the whole process involved in creating, curating and organising an exhibition, but this post-exhibition phase is always the hardest bit. <br /><br /><i>Weaving Ghosts</i> has had 5 showings so far (2 Scotland and 3 Norway) and there is at least one more venue planned in England but not until next year, so at the moment I am trying to find more galleries to fill the gap or continue the tour, but it’s a pretty thankless task. <br /><br />On the evidence of my experience the only way to get venues to give you a show is if you actually know someone who works there, or have some link to the venue. Sending unsolicited proposals has seldom been successful for me. It doesn’t take much to just acknowledge receipt of a proposal but it’s obviously too much effort for a lot of the people responsible for planning exhibitions. Many of the bigger and better known galleries also specifically say that they do not accept unsolicited submissions so unless you know someone working there you haven’t a hope in hell. Smaller regional museums and Art Centres in Britain are easier to get a show in than the big galleries, so that is where I concentrate my efforts though even with them it’s also often hard to get a response. Just a ‘thank you’ would do. So far I have sent out 4 detailed proposals tailored to individual venues in the last couple of months and not had a single response. I am an artist, not a salesperson, so I am not going to cold call or doorstep people, I try to find a more sympathetic way of doing things, but even after 30 plus years at it I still don’t really know what is the right way to get results! <br /><br />Meanwhile I have plenty more ideas I want to explore for <i>Weaving Ghosts</i> but without a confirmed date for its next showing I am finding it difficult to focus so today have spent my studio time flitting from one thing to the next.</div>
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Here is a typical unfocused day in the studio…..ironing some plastic lids, I really like the resulting flat brightly coloured disks with the vestiges of their ribbed edges and screw mechanism. Making willow frames for the planned <a href="https://loiswalpole.blogspot.fr/2017/07/on-damp-march-saturday-this-year-few.html">Southport Boat Basket.</a> No kinks today, possibly because I had soaked the white willow for much longer and had altered the former I made with some concave shaping on the corners and an inner tube to cushion it. Cutting up heavy duty polyethylene bottles, possibly for the SBB but not sure and cutting up inner tube for tying the frames. Playing with gladioli leaves to see if I can remember how to start a continuous, non-stitched, coiled, plait, like the one <a href="http://carlosfontales.blogspot.fr/">Carlos Fontales</a> briefly showed me how to do with esparto. Gave up after a while, as it wasn’t working and was just making me cross. In principle it seems very simple, I am just having difficulty with the rhythm of it and the hand positioning at the moment.<div>
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Took some photos of work in progress on the Southport, responded to some emails and social media, edited the Weaving Ghosts proposal for galleries and looked on line for some regional museums. Sorted some willows and put them to soak in the pond. Started writing this blog post. Shaved some skeins of willow, for the SBB, and watched an astonishing amount of large hailstones come out of the sky and cover the ground outside the studio in a few seconds. </div>
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<br />I hope this phase doesn’t go on too long, because it feels a bit tedious and uncreative, but I know it’s the only way I am going to get back into it, it’s essential to be in the studio just ‘farting about’.</div>
Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-57882042828217174782018-03-12T17:13:00.001+01:002018-11-27T18:37:03.973+01:00Toxic Basketry<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dyed cane and willow wastepaper bins, early 90's</td></tr>
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<br />Students and fellow basket makers often tell me that they only like to work with ‘natural’ materials.<br />
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These are people who are also genuinely concerned about the environment and about ethical production methods. This makes it all the more surprising to me to discover that some of them buy natural materials to make baskets with that are in fact highly processed in one way or another and often have both environmental and ethical problems associated with this processing. <br />
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Firstly, I am not in any way suggesting these people are being devious or dishonest. In fact I think most of them genuinely believe that they are using natural, sustainable and environmentally sound materials when they purchase them on line because that is how they are being marketed. If you have never visited a commercial willow grower, that doesn't grow organically go in late spring and you will discover how unenvironmentally friendly it can be.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Commercial willow cultivation </td></tr>
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Willow is a ‘natural’ environmentally friendly product in itself, it is how it is grown and processed that is the problem. In much of Europe a lot of the big commercial willow growers still use a lot of herbicides and pesticides because they grow many hectares in monocultures, consequently they cannot control weeds or insect attacks without resorting to chemical warfare. But it isn’t just the growing, in order to ship natural materials it is often necessary to spray them with fungicide.<br />
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On one of my visits to one of the bigger willow growers in Somerset, I was presented with the sight of a worker in the yard spraying willow fencing panels with fungicide, prior to their shipment abroad. The man doing the spraying had some protection against the spray but the weavers of the panels, totally unprotected in their normal clothing, were working in the same mist in an open sided shed no more than 10 metres away from the spraying. It was 16 years ago and I hope very much that this sort of thing doesn’t happen now. I am sure that many of the customers who bought willows or fencing panels from this grower at the time had no idea that this sort of thing went on because their marketing only spoke about their lovely ‘natural’ product.<br />
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things are changing in the commercial willow world, at last, and there
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dyed cane and found netting 1984</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The last cane baskets 1984</td></tr>
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Things are not however so good in the world of rattan. I know quite a bit about rattan because when I started making baskets I used a lot of it in its highly processed form known in Britain as ‘centre cane’ and in America as ‘reed’(France 'rotin', Germany 'pedigrohr') I even wrote a book featuring ‘centre cane’ techniques. It had lots of advantages for me as a city dweller, I could purchase it easily, I could dye it any colour I wanted, I could store it easily, soaking only took a few minutes and could be in done in a small bowl. All of these qualities also made it very easy to use in the classroom and students could learn many different techniques with this versatile spaghetti like material. It was and remains in some places a popular material for use in occupational therapy for all the same reasons. Its been imported to Europe for centuries and in Britain after the first world war many convalescing soldiers were taught to make baskets using it, which apparently aided their recovery.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Drew</td></tr>
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Despite all these advantages it was meeting David Drew in the 1980’s who grew his own organic willows in his garden for his beautiful baskets that had a profound influence on my thinking about the materials I was using and the ethical and environmental problems involved in rattan processing. That coupled with the realisation of the part I was playing in this story by my purchasing it from the other side of the globe and dyeing it with fibre reactive dyes convinced me I had to stop using it which I did in the early 90's.<br />
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For a while centre cane seemed to have gone out of fashion with basket makers in Europe, though its use in America has stayed fairly strong. But recently there has been a rash of it cropping up all over social media and being used by young makers. I thought that maybe now it is all being grown sustainably and the use of diesel oil and chemicals in the curing process has all been stopped, because otherwise why would these people be using it? So I did some research and what I found is that whilst there is an increased awareness of the environmental and health and safety problems at a governmental and NGO level there has been little progress on improving the situation for all sorts of interconnected reasons.<br />
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Calamus (rattan) is a jungle creeper that has traditionally been harvested from virgin forest in south East Asia and more recently Africa which, due to high demand for the product for the furniture industry has caused a lot of problems ecologically and shortages in some places. Rattan palms are slow growing not arriving at a productive harvest size for 12 years. So the idea of creating managed plantations was apparently a good solution to the problem of over harvesting, except that the land needed for a rattan plantation is equally suitable for an oil palm plantation. Oil palm is more profitable so the enthusiasm for planting rattan gardens as they are known has waned and harvesting from the wild remains the modus operandi.<br />
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IKEA in conjunction with the WWF have been instrumental in encouraging sustainable plantations in Vietnam and they have also implemented health and safety procedures in the few workshops that they work with directly. The problem however goes far beyond their control because there are not enough ‘sustainable’ rattan plantations to meet the needs of all the furniture manufacturers that want it.<br />
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Another major problem with rattan is the processing which includes 'curing' the rattan. Curing is considered to be a necessary process to kill insects and stop moulds developing in the moisture laden air of the places where it grows. It is done by steeping the rattan in boiling diesel oil. The problem here is that because many of the communities where this is done are very poor they often employ used diesel and cannot afford the face masks and protective clothing that are needed to protect themselves from this highly toxic activity. There are quite a few videos on the web of rattan processing plants made by the companies doing the processing but few showing the diesel boiling process though on some you can see the blue smoke coming out of sheds in the background, (of course they might just be burning lunch but I doubt it.) However on some tourist videos it is possible to see people working with the boiling tanks wearing no masks or other protection. Another process that is often recommended is to sulphur the rattan immediately after harvesting to stop moulds developing that discolour the canes. A similar process to that used for whitening willow can be employed but they have discovered that a more effective method is to soak the canes in a sulphur solution which give off far more toxic fumes than the dry method. Not only is this bad news for the workers but both the diesel and the sulphur have to be disposed of at some point and apparently much of the residue ends up in the local water source.<br />
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Despite considerable time spent researching this issue I have been unable to find a source of genuinely sustainable centre cane/ reed for basket making. If anyone knows of one please tell me about it and I will be happy to promote it.<br />
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<br />In the meantime, developing a close relationship with your materials by gathering or growing your own is still the easiest way to be sure that you are working sustainably. It also makes your work unique to you and your environment, it uses no air miles, endangers no one else’s health or well being and costs nothing. What's not to like?</div>
Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-6992028202265441702017-07-19T17:37:00.001+02:002017-07-19T17:59:09.209+02:00 Boat Baskets and Beaters <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On a damp March Saturday this year, a few folk gathered at Mid Yell Church Hall to participate in an auction of the church's possessions. The late Georgian church, simple and solid, that had wedded, christened, buried and, no doubt, hectored the community for nearly 200 hundred years is now too expensive to maintain for the small congregation that use it, so it is being sold for conversion to other purposes. In the announcement for the sale it mentioned a basket and a couple of carpet beaters and my curiosity was piqued.<br />
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In amongst the cups and saucers, kettles,Christmas decorations, a manger with fluffy lamb, pews, vases, two organs and the altar was a Southport boat basket and two cane carpet beaters, all in good condition although the basket has lost its lid. No one else was interested in owning them so my £2 bid secured the lot which included (rather surprisingly in a church) a small folding card table and a reel of very fine copper wire. Some of the participants in the auction ended up buying tons of stuff in order to support the church and when I asked one man what he would do with it all, he said he had no idea. The most poignant moment of the whole event was when the Bible, a massive, ancient, leather bound, silver clasped copy appeared and nobody wanted to buy it, not even for one pound. Everyone hung their heads and the sense of shame in the room was tangible.<br />
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The Southport boat basket was an extremely popular possession in its day. Many examples can be seen in museums in Britain and particularly in Scotland, the Shetland Museum has at least two. According to Dorothy Wright (p.120 <i>Complete Book of Baskets and Basketry, ISBN 0 88914 055 3) </i>it was designed in about 1830 by a Mr. Cobham of Mawdesley in Lancashire and produced by the local basket making firm of Thomas Cowley. Although no one else at the auction bid for the basket plenty of people admired it and older folk remembered having one similar at home. They were used for taking goods such as eggs and butter to market but I have heard they also served as 'cabin baggage' for the many women gutters who travelled by train around the northern British coasts following the herring boats, though I have no hard evidence for this.<br />
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It isn't surprising it was such a popular basket because it was very well designed, not only in terms of its functionality but also in terms of the time and skill needed to produce it. Made out of buff willow and split ash it must have been a quick basket to produce because of its method of construction.<br />
Only one simple wooden mould would have been needed to make the willow frame of the basket, the willow frame of the lid and the ash handle bow/central rib as they are all the same size. The lid was woven from each end on one frame with a gap between the two woven areas that went over the handle. It was attached to one of the long sides of the frame. This would have been far quicker than making two separate lids as it was only necessary to make and attach one frame. One of the Southports in the Shetland Museum collection has a plywood lid which was obviously a replacement, but very effective and quick to do. Interestingly a fettle ( carrying band) had also been added to this basket so that it could be carried on the back as though it were a kishie.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Southport boat basket in Shetland Museum with wooden lid and fettle</td></tr>
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The use of a strip of ash that was both the handle bow and central rib would also have been much simpler to construct than a willow one, requiring only the bending and tacking of the ash strip. The strength supplied by this ash bow/rib meant that the ribs on the basket could be spaced quite widely apart thus speeding up the weaving, there are only 10 willow ribs on the full size basket. Perhaps the most ingenious design feature is the strip of ash that runs end to end underneath the basket because not only did it make the basket very strong but it also eliminated the need to fill in the gap between the two sides with willow, which is always the slowest and most difficult part of making a frame basket.<br />
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Given how popular this basket was I am surprised no-one has thought to make them again now. The design is well documented, it is an indigenous British basket and it is extremely practical. As I have willow and the ash trees grow like weeds around my studio I am sorely tempted to give it a go.<br />
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Before electricity came into our homes carpet beaters were essential household equipment. On a dry spring day carpets and mats were draped over the washing line and the living daylights were beaten out of them by bored housewives wielding these decorative cane beaters. Not only was this superb therapy for the woman doing the beating but it also got rid of all the the dust and moth larvae without her needing to spend any money on electricity. In our house the man beats the mats with a length of timber or an old tennis racket but I might feel a tad more inclined to join in with these lovely beaters. There are also instructions for making a carpet beater (p.101) in the Dorothy Wright book mentioned previously.Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-67815449344240478682017-01-24T15:05:00.000+01:002017-01-24T16:24:40.671+01:00Woven Communities Symposium 2<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.johncowanbaskets.co.uk/">John Cowan</a> and his herring cran</td></tr>
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Symposiums around basket making are a rare breed. I have only been to four: <i><a href="https://loiswalpole.blogspot.fr/2011/04/baskets-at-sainsburys.html">Basketry Making Human Nature</a> </i>at the Sainsbury Centre in 2011, <i>Woven Communities 1</i> at St. Andrews University in 2012, <i><a href="http://serfenta.pl/en/activities/item/328-viva-basket.html">Viva Basket</a> </i>in Cieszyn, Poland in 2014 and <i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/scotlandswovencommunities/">Woven Communities 2</a></i> at St. Andrews last week. But we definitely need more because they are a great way to meet your fellow makers and for us to engage with people in many other walks of life whose work, in some way or another, connects with basket making.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hebrideanbaskets.co.uk/">Dawn Susan</a> demonstrating a Hebridean ciosan</td></tr>
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This latest symposium at St. Andrews is the last programmed event in the much bigger <a href="https://wovencommunities.org/">Woven Communities Project</a> that was initiated by and has been managed, so ably, by Stephanie Bunn of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of St. Andrews.<br />
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The theme for this event was <i>Making, Mind and Memory </i>and was divided into sections, Materials and Skills, Memory and Reminiscence, Basketry and Maths, Therapeutic Uses of Basketry, Intangible Knowledge and Education and Innovation. Within this framework we heard from basket makers, anthropologists, archaeologists, artists,engineers, philosophers, an occupational therapist, museum curators a ropeworker and a mathematician among others. There are always things that spark the imagination or kick start a new way of looking at things immediately and things that re surface some time later, because they just won't go away.<br />
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The things that I came away with immediately are images from <a href="http://hilaryburns.com/">Hilary Burns</a> talk about basketry in Britain during and after the 1914-18 war, the use of maths for inspiration by <a href="http://www.marycrabb.co.uk/">Mary Crabb,</a> a map drawn from memory by a Hebridean fisherman in <a href="https://dfclanntair.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/hand-memory-by-jon-macleod/">Jon Macleods</a> talk, the smiling faces of Polish basket makers in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Serfenta/">Paulina Adamskas'</a> presentation and the fibre alphabet of Kiphu cords of the central Andes that <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SabineHylandpublic/">Sabine Hyland</a> is researching. It seems divisive to single anything out because in truth it was all fascinating and enjoyable. Except, that is, for my own Open Office presentation which was plagued with technical glitches, the most serious resulting in the loss of some images. Not an experience I have ever had before and very frustrating. But, according to the internet I am not alone. Personally I suspect Windows 10 has an anti open source glitch built into it, but then I am naturally suspicious of any business that makes a lot of money!<br />
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My thanks to Stephanie for inviting me and to everyone else involved in organising the event, especially Lucie.<br />
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En route I managed to see <a href="http://www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/artist/lise_bech">Lise Bechs</a> solo show at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, lovely work but the gallery should have given her more space, the work needs and deserves some air around it and the paintings upstairs had plenty of room!<br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-62469454974233917352016-11-12T20:10:00.002+01:002016-11-18T11:19:07.741+01:00Woven Communities in Shetland <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ewen Balfour working with the children at Urufirth </td></tr>
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Stephanie Bunn at the University of St. Andrews is the driving force behind the <a href="http://wovencommunities.org/">Woven Communitites Project </a>,which has been going for a few years now. Its main aim is to document the materials, techniques, people and places that were all part of the vernacular basketry of Scotland. Through its symposia and other activities the Project also includes contemporary international practice and methodologies in the discussion.<br />
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This summer Stephanie, along with Dawn Susan, Julie Gurr and Liz Balfour, has been visiting Museums in the Highlands and Islands, documenting objects meeting elders and organising events.<br />
The Shetland Museum was one of the partner organisations and Ian Tait, the Director of the Shetland Museum, invited myself and Ewen Balfour to be involved in the Woven Communities activities that were being organised by Kirsty and Yvonne, the Museums Education team, in Shetland schools. I happily accepted, though not without some trepidation, because it has been a while since I have done any work in schools.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Simmens 'makkin' at Urufirth</td></tr>
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In the end the programme that was divised between us all worked well. Ian started with a talk about the Shetland basketry tradition, this was followed by Ewen who taught the pupils how to make simmens (rope) with floss ( <i>Juncus effusis)</i> and then showed them how the simmens were used for making kishies.<i> </i>Stephanie told the children about the Woven Communities Project and it was my task to re-enforce the simmens making, but with bits of found ghost rope pieces, that we then tied or stitched into baskets. Stephanie documented the activities in all the schools on video.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Whalsay pupils and their baskets made from found materials</td></tr>
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Locals were invited to come in with any baskets that they had at home and in Unst we had several visitors come to the school with lovely kishies.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Child size kishies made some years ago on Unst</td></tr>
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My co-workers, the schools, their teachers and the children were all a pleasure to work with and seemed to genuinely enjoy their immersion. A session at Urufirth was made very special by the children bursting into spontaneous singing, whilst working.<br />
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If we do not work with children we cannot expect any of these traditional skills to survive. So for me it was a positive and rewarding experience to know that as a result of this project at least 30 children aged between 7 and 13, who knew little or nothing about the tradition of basket making in Shetland, now know a lot more and are capable of making a small coiled basket and simmens in various materials.<br />
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For those interested there is a second Woven Communities symposium being organised by Stephanie at St. Andrews for January 2017. Details will be being published soon, so check the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/scotlandswovencommunities/">Woven Communities Facebook</a> page if you are interested in attending.Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-60355440218768594142016-08-19T19:10:00.000+02:002016-11-13T16:33:22.148+01:00Drawing Inspiration<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1996 Contemplate and Cure, Taitemia Gallery, Kuopio, Finland</td></tr>
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One of the requirements of the City and Guilds Basketry Certificate, that I did at the London College of Furniture in 1982, was to produce a body of work using all the techniques and materials we had studied based on a theme. Mine was <i>Baskets in Paintings</i> as there were plenty of them and I enjoyed looking for them. Subsequently, paintings and drawings, without baskets in them, have often provided me with inspiration and in each case helped me to develop new techniques and forms,(the Heironymous Bosch painting <i>Christ Crowned with Thorns</i> and Picasso's <i>The Pan Pipes</i>, among others) but I haven't done any for a while.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1998 Basket inspired by Heironymous Bosch, Cardboard, willow and plastic bottles</td></tr>
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During a recent search for some slides of old work I came across some images which reminded me just how good it can be to work off someone else's creativity, without actually working collaboratively.<br />
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In 1996 JJ Ignatius Brennan (my husband) and I had a joint exhibition in Finland, at the Taitemia Gallery in Kuopio. The title of the Exhibition was 'Contemplate and Cure' which was also the title of a series of drawings he had done in response to my having a cancer scare. In turn I then used his drawings as the inspiration for my baskets. For me it was a great way to get ideas without having to search for them, they just leapt off the drawings at me, but they also presented me with lots of challenges in terms of techniques, which I relished.<br />
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Whilst we were there we taught a joint workshop at Kuopio Academy of Crafts and Design where the students were asked to use their senses smelling, touching and hearing things to inspire marks on paper. These marks led to drawings which became baskets.</div>
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It was a long time ago, I cannot remember the names of all of the students and my photos of the workshop were not good. But I do remember it being a very creative few days, for all of us.<br />
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Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-66493300719203077552016-07-12T16:03:00.002+02:002016-08-14T16:16:52.378+02:00Stroking Straws<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span lang="en-US">The hit is instant your skin cools rapidly and there is a powerful smell of dust and damp stone.You
struggle to see anything in the deep shadow and the silence is palpably
beautiful. Tentatively stepping forward, afraid of stumbling on the rock floor, you look up. It's an automatic
reaction. Everyone who enters does it and the reward for this
involuntary neck exercise is to see some </span>sublime stone carving.<br />
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Out there on the
other side of the giant oak door, the crowded market street is noisy,
and unbearably hot but, on this side you find yourself in the best
chill-out room imaginable. There was no charge to push open that door
and enter, yet you are surprisingly alone in this cool and tranquil
space. Red tea lights flicker ebony shadows over hand crafted, arcane
and symbolic treasures. Their significance escapes you, but their
presence is curiously soothing and you feel the need to be still.</div>
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<span lang="en-US">There are plenty of
places to sit. In fact a couple of hundred simple wooden chairs, lined up in
rows facing east. Old hand-made upright chairs with straw-wrapped rush
seats, each one unique like the people they have supported over the years, people who came here seeking support of some kind. Light
streams in from a window high in the walls and the empty seats
glow gently.</span></div>
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Sitting on one of these
chairs you notice that none of the rush worked seats are identical either. Different sized coils, varied straw colours, different cross over points and oscillating twists. The urge to stroke them is irresistible, they are lovely because they were lovingly made, they are simply beautiful.<br />
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The heat is crushing, there is a strong smell of exhaust. The light is painful and you are enveloped by noise. You wonder if somehow, in a moment of inattentiveness, your eyes closed and it was just a dream.</div>
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Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-26441791664729442752016-06-17T17:37:00.001+02:002016-08-14T16:17:13.035+02:00Ghosts at the Kloster<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Deep Six</i></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Weaving
Ghosts</i> is now on show at<a href="https://halsnoykloster.wordpress.com/"> Halsnoy Kloster </a>(monastery) on the
island of Halsnoy in the Hardanger fjord in Norway, where it will
remain on show until the 14th August.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
trip to set it up started badly for me, with striking railway workers in
France preventing me from getting to the airport. This resulted in losing a day that had been planned for the installation and also meant
that there was little time spare for me to explore the island. In the end it didn't really matter because the house and gardens of
the Kloster are so special there was no need to look further.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
gallery and my home for the week was in a rustic mansion built in
1841 set amongst the remaining stones of the original medieval
monastery. It reeks history and according to the locals is haunted.
The floorboards did creak occasionally but I have no doubt that was
caused by the unusually warm weather with the sun shining out of a
clear blue sky for six days solid, rather than phantoms. One of the
locals told me that summer normally happens on a Tuesday in July! </span></span></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LKIJ90N7daE/V2QHnnnsWAI/AAAAAAAACMQ/AQDtf8HJa8Ucv0036zM_Zx9vzLdMQ6VdgCLcB/s1600/DSC_0064.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LKIJ90N7daE/V2QHnnnsWAI/AAAAAAAACMQ/AQDtf8HJa8Ucv0036zM_Zx9vzLdMQ6VdgCLcB/s400/DSC_0064.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Flotilla</i></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>There Were 15 to Feed at Midbrake</i> and<i> Fleiki</i></td></tr>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;">In
the semi basement, which has low arched windows looking onto the garden, are
four linked rooms providing the main gallery space with heavy wooden
beams and rough cast whitewashed walls. The walls in the two main
reception rooms on the ground floor are also used for exhibitions and
are decorated with painted canvas panels in red and green. </span></span></span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://helenpetersenfotografi.wordpress.com/">HelenPetersen</a> is the curator and manager of the house which is used for a
<a href="https://halsnoykloster.wordpress.com/kunstneropphold/about-the-residency-program/">photography residency</a> and private events like weddings and
conferences as well as being open to the public. It is filled with
furniture from the museum collection and outside a lawn runs down
to the boathouse and stone jetty with a spectacular view of
the mouth of the fjord. The house is surrounded by very tall
ancient oaks, beech and ash. There has been very little modernisation
in the house so it feels as though you are living in a very
unprecious museum where you are allowed to sleep in the beds, sit on
the chairs and eat at the tables.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;">It
was interesting to set up the same exhibition in two very different
spaces. The simple white box in the Shetland Museum where
everything could be pinned to the walls made the exhibition very easy to install and I was very happy with how it looked there. But
this is something totally different at Halsnoy, very domestic, small
separated spaces, where nothing can be pinned to the walls, forcing me
to re think how things could be presented. The effect it had on some
of the pieces was dramatic, particularly <i>Deep Six</i> and <i>Deep
Sixty </i>which came alive against the coloured walls of the Red and
Green Room, I doubt if they could ever be hung in better spaces.</span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zg4GtQYYeM0/V2QNQNqLLFI/AAAAAAAACNU/42NuzKYsd68bjNTRmuCcyOUPGROclwD4gCLcB/s1600/DSC_0032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zg4GtQYYeM0/V2QNQNqLLFI/AAAAAAAACNU/42NuzKYsd68bjNTRmuCcyOUPGROclwD4gCLcB/s400/DSC_0032.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Deep Sixty</i></td></tr>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;">Curating
and installing my own work is becoming a habit that I enjoy. Each
time I present it in a new location there are challenges and
surprises that allow the work to be seen in a different way. In the
Shetland Museum the space and lighting were a pleasure to work with
but at the Kloster it is the fabric of the building and its demands
that have added a new dimension. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Footwarmas and Key of Sea</i></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;">Being Shetlands' closest neighbour
this region of Norway is also very appropriate for this particular body
of work because there are many similarities between the two places. Not just latitude and climate or because they both have <i>Leirviks,</i> b</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium;">ut also because they both lost a large part of their basketry tradition when oil was discovered in the 1960's in the sea bed between the two places. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;">My
thanks go to Jane Catherin Saersten Junger of <a href="http://www.sunnhordland.museum.no/forside.aspx?id=forsida">Sunnhordland Museum</a> for
inviting me to exhibit at the Kloster and to Helen Petersen who made
me very welcome, working hard to make sure everything went to plan
including gathering and washing materials from the beach for the
workshop and open day. Also my gratitude to <a href="http://www.oyvindhjelmen.com/">Oyvind Hjelmen</a> who with
Helen manages the photography residency at the Kloster and who
helped me with the installation of my benign ghosts.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
fast ferry to Bergen made up for the trials of the outward journey.
We definitely need one of these in Shetland to go from Yell to Lerwick... I might have
to start a petition.</span></span></span><br />
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Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-8043723123144231772016-05-11T19:52:00.000+02:002016-08-14T16:17:37.498+02:00Rencontres Autour du Saule, Bouxurulles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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An appropriate name for this sociable little basket festival, the sixth edition of which was held in the tiny rural village of Bouxurulles in the Vosges last week.<br />
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Valerie Testu one of the principal organisers and a professional basket maker herself, invited myself and others from Germany,<i> Alexandra Marks</i>, Belgium, <i>Liev Lieckens, </i>UK,<i> Adrian Charlton, </i>Spain, <i>Carlos Fontales</i> and, of course, France,<i> Francois Deplanches, Regis Colin, Stephane Deleau, Florence Canavacciuolo, and Florian Gascht </i>to teach workshops.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work by Alexandra Marks</td></tr>
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I hadn't seen Alexandra, Adrian, Carlos or Francois for a while and so it was a pleasure to have a chance to be with them and to meet others. Some makers were there to take part in the basket market held at the weekend and <i>Klaus Seyfang </i>turned up, to the delight of everyone who knows him, just to be sociable.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work by Valerie Testu</td></tr>
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There were 18 classes run over a 3 day period and my contribution was a 2 day one for coiling and looping with recycled and found materials and 1 day on hexagonal plaiting. Many of the students were regulars to the event, people who really enjoy making baskets as a leisure activity.<br />
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The village residents host the tutors and organise meals and entertainments for everyone concerned , the sun shone and nearly 600 litres of local beer were consumed over the 5 days. Personally I enjoyed it very much and wish to thank all the villagers concerned but particularly Valerie, Jeannot and Zabeth for their incredible hard work and kind hospitality. I have happily accepted an invitation to return next year.<br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-50330493059848968712016-01-11T14:33:00.000+01:002016-08-14T16:19:16.633+02:00A Day Lasts Only a Few Hours.....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A day lasts only a few hours, at this time of year, or so it seems to me. In truth, of course, they are expanding, the shortest day has been and gone but the daylight seems to only stretch slowly forward into the evenings, not back into the night where I need it to go. How can I go to the studio in the morning in the dark? My body is reluctant to stir. The outdoor cold shower (yes, I know it's crazy but it works for me) helps to get me into the day quickly. It warms my body instantly and stops me yawning but only if I do it straight from a warm bed. If I hesitate and stagger about in clothing before the shower it is much harder to strip off again.<br />
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In the autumn I can hear an animal settling into hibernation in the roof above the bed, it moves about for a few weeks at dusk, presumably making up its bed, then all goes silent and it won't stir again for a couple of months. I could happily do the same but I have an exhibition to work towards.<br />
Perhaps I was stupid to accept these dates for a major exhibition but it never occurred to me to think about the effect of the planetary movements on my ability to work.<br />
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Another thing I failed to think about was photography. I have always taken my own photos, initially the motivation was to avoid the expense of paying someone else, but quickly I learnt that it was important to photograph my work in the way that I wanted it to be seen. In 'Crafty Containers' the publisher did all the photography and hung my baskets, made of urban waste, in trees at jaunty angles or filled them with plants that hid the baskets. The photos could not have been more inappropriate but I had surrendered control and got what I deserved I suppose. It was a tough lesson. If I can help it I don't use flash photography, but at this time of year the light is so bad it is almost impossible to take good photos of work indoors. From past experience I know I need good photos of the work before the exhibition opens so I will just have to find a way to do it.<br />
<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-23607696266934573392015-11-27T11:19:00.000+01:002016-08-14T16:19:48.562+02:00Unpicking 'Poesie'<br />
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With roughly nine weeks left for me to finish new work prior to the opening of <i>Weaving Ghosts</i> the pressure is starting to mount. Nine weeks that inevitably has to include Christmas and New Year celebrations. It is true that I am no fan of Christmas, mainly because it seems to start at the beginning of November and just gets worse until Epiphany and the 'sudden and miraculous realisation' that it is, at last, all over! <br />
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Creative pressure, however, is not like other kinds of pressure for me. It seems to be a positive force. The nearer the deadline gets the more I start undoing things that are already almost completed. This would appear to be counterproductive behaviour but, often, it is because I have finally realised that there is a better way to use that material or technique and the remake, if that is what it can be called, usually happens very quickly. Since March this year I have spent many hours making things that I am now unpicking, it's a bit of a kamikaze tactic because there is no time left to do it a second time so this time it will have to work. But, I am a fatalist and think that if my instinct is telling me to undo something then that is what I should do.<br />
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The piece that I am most excited about at the moment is something that came together relatively quickly and won't need a remake. But, on reflection, I realise that I have actually been working on the idea for several years and it just didn't manifest itself as a piece of work until now. When something excites me it takes over and I can work very quickly and put in long hours without noticing I am doing so. It is almost as though the speed at which a piece comes together physically is an indication of how successful it will be for me. It doesn't matter if it is a first make or a remake, if it happens quickly it seems to work. That said, I still need to put the hours into making things that get unpicked because without making nothing happens, the ideas come out of the making process, however tedious that may be at times.<br />
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An obvious work ethic in art seems to suck the vitality out of it for me, so I deliberately try to make my work look as though it came together without effort, but this can be counterproductive in terms of selling work. Appreciating the manifest gestures of labour in a piece of work is one easy way for the viewer to understand it and its price tag (if it is for sale). There are many contemporary basket makers who use a very obvious visible gesture in a piece to demonstrate that they have put painstaking hours into their work, which in turn will help to justify what appears to be a high price. But often they do it at the expense of what, in French, is referred to as '<i>poesie</i>' and the work takes on a moribund character becoming nothing more than a demonstration of skill. Its' a trap I try to avoid, so more unpicking awaits....<br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-60583689952817215862015-09-29T13:46:00.000+02:002016-08-14T16:20:17.327+02:00Paillasses and Peluches<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Bric a bracs are a recurring theme for me because apart from the visual spectacle of a sea of <i>peluches</i> (soft toys) or a crate of keys, they always have lots of old baskets in them.<br />
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Most of them are horrible commercial varnished things, made to sell cheaply, often imported from China or bought as souvenirs in some far flung place. Sometimes though, there are also old local baskets coiled from straw and bramble ( <i>paillasses</i> or <i>paillassou</i>s) that were made to store dried plums (these are known here as <i>bourgnes</i>) or to raise bread dough and no doubt many other uses unimaginable to us now.<br />
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Unwillingly, as I am not too keen on clutter, my studio has become the rescue centre for these lovely old baskets as I find them too difficult to ignore in their often derelict state. This year however, I have blocked my ears when visiting bric a bracs so that I cannot hear their plaintive cries, enough is enough! But I swear they know I am there. During the weekend of the Assumption there were bric a bracs on Saturday as well as the Sunday and I knew, somehow, I wasn't going to get away with coming home alone. Having walked for at least an hour round the Sunday market in the streets of a local village and within metres of the car for a quick getaway, I was feeling smug that not a centime had escaped my purse when I saw her. Sitting proudly above the sea of plastic junk on the wobbly wallpaper table, with her lid fitting as snugly as a sailors cap, she was scanning the hoardes as they pushed past and before I had a chance to hide, she had spotted me and was calling out. <br />
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How could I resist? She was lovely, no holes, no worm, beautifully made, all that remained was to pay up. The owner had gone into her house to cook lunch and so was dragged out, wiping her hands on a tea towel, by someone manning the stall for her. Apparently it had been made locally and had been in her family for four generations. We calculated that she must be over 100 years old but she really doesn't look it - the basket, of course, not the owner! She said she would have liked to have kept it for her children and grandchildren but they hadn't shown any interest in it. I won't tell you what I paid for her because it's not polite to talk about ladies this way, but it wasn't much, lovely old baskets have little or no value for most people here now.<br />
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Back in my studio she has found a warm, dry home and some friends. I will have to start finding good homes for them soon.....<br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-73519178070412957552015-08-01T17:32:00.001+02:002016-08-14T16:20:31.005+02:00New Web Site<br />
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At last...... the <a href="http://www.loiswalpole.com/">new web site </a>is up. It has taken me months but, I have learnt a huge amount.<br />
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The old web site was designed by my brother <a href="https://twitter.com/rkw01">Robert Walpole</a>, when he was just starting out. Now he does exciting (for him!) work with meta data and open source. Next week he will be presenting a paper at a conference in Washington DC about some ground breaking work he did at the National Archives and I am really pleased for him. He also pushed me to take on the task of creating the new site myself and I am glad he did, though, in practice, it was very difficult for me to find the time to learn HTML. What time I have, I want to use in my studio. So, last year I contacted <a href="http://www.palmerconsulting.co.uk/about.html">Will Palmer</a> who worked on the <a href="http://www.scottishbasketmakerscircle.org/">Scottish Basketmakers Circle</a> site and had just set up his own consultancy and asked him if he would be interested in taking it on. It was important for me to support someone early on in their career. Happily, for me, he agreed. I knew how I wanted it to look and that I wanted it to be a thorough archive of my work, but also something I could manage myself. So Will set up the structure and taught me how to work with it. His instructions were very clear and have enabled me to have the web site I was seeking. A lot of people say creating web sites is a 5 minute job, but don't believe them if you want anything more than 3 pictures! It was very hard work going through all the photos, press cuttings and catalogues. Putting in all that information accurately was, for me, very tedious because I had to work so methodically and systematically and at times it just felt like punishment but, thankfully, it is now done!<br />
I am very grateful to Will for his patience and can recommend him to anyone who would like to create their own site but needs technical support to do it. <br />
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Please let us know what you think of it.<br />
<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-17127337319557729732015-07-14T18:24:00.000+02:002016-08-14T16:21:05.774+02:00 Grass and Water<br />
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Over the last couple of months I have been walking in the surrounding countryside to get some exercise. A back problem has prevented me from doing any proper sport for over a year now and I think my tennis life is finally over. It was possibly the cause of all the bother in the first place and I can't just play tennis for 'fun'.... what is the point? <br />
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The bi-product of these walks has been the gathering of grasses and anything else that looks workable, like docks, plantains and wild oats. Grasses are a whole new field of botany for me. I lived in London for 30 years where the only grass I saw was mown to within an inch of its life in a public park. So, my general rule of thumb for gathering the stuff has been, if I like the look of it I cut some. There is a purple grass that grows in a dried out reservoir by the railway line that was stunning when I cut it first. But it has dried now and although it still has a hint of purple it is very much less attractive. It seems to me that in basket making with natural materials everything always ends up, ultimately, in the brown spectrum, which is probably why, on the whole, I prefer unnatural materials!<br />
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But, it has been good exercise gathering the, soon to be, brown stuff and the back is almost back to normal with the combination of a daily massage, walking and the 'water cure'.<br />
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Looking for a natural cure for the massage god's allergic asthma I hit on the 'water cure' and as the web site suggested that it works for almost anything and it costs nothing to do, we both gave it a try. He hasn't wheezed since and my back is feeling way way better. Is it a coincidence that plants and humans both function better when they are hydrated? The grass is certainly greener when it is growing.<br />
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<i></i><br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-8132776769403558502015-06-26T14:39:00.000+02:002016-08-14T16:48:44.063+02:00More Addiction and Obsession<br />
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Perhaps it is something to do with the air in Charente Maritime but not far from the garden of Gabriel Albert is this sweet little private garden. Giant birds, tiny aeroplanes and normal sized donkeys are all immaculately teased out of box trees.<br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-10559237185079829172015-06-22T12:46:00.000+02:002016-08-14T16:48:57.781+02:00Addiction and Obsession<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every time I drive through Chez Audebert past the garden of Gabriel Albert on the way to the coast, I am reminded of addiction and obsession.<br />
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A friend once accused me of being addicted to basket making because I take my work with me when I go to the beach. I don't think he intended it as an accusation, but at the time it felt like one. It is true that I get looked at when I work on the beach, but I think most people are just curious to know what I am doing. For me, it is just the pleasure of being able to do work I enjoy in a beautiful outdoor environment.<br />
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It seems there is a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable addiction or obsession. We tend to regard obsessive compulsive behaviour as undesirable and have called it a 'disorder', but many of the people whose work gives us pleasure, in one way or another, have to be compulsively obsessive in order to be good at what they do.<br />
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Rafael Nadal has been the subject of OCD rumours with his twitches, ticks and knicker adjusting on the tennis court, but surely he has to be obsessive about and addicted to tennis in order to be one of the best in the world. A few ticks on the court are just one more manifestation of that. Its' not just sportspeople, but also musicians, artists, authors, actors and scientists, to name just a few, who devote hours and hours to their chosen activity, often to the exclusion of other aspects of their lives. <br />
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Obsession in art manifests itself in many ways. With some artists it is the need to explore the same idea or concept over and over again, in order to express that idea or concept in the most effective way. With others it is about seeking technical perfection. Perhaps it was a combination of both of these that led Gabriel Albert to work obsessively for 20 years (1969-89) making the 420 life size cement sculptures that filled his garden. It is said that once he had finished a sculpture he put it outside and wherever he put it that is where it stayed. Apparently he wasn't that interested in positioning them to their best advantage. To me that suggests that he was never really satisfied with his creations and that he felt compelled to go straight back to the workshop and start again, eager to make this next one better than the last. Since Gabriel's death in 2000 at the age of 95, thirty of his sculptures have been stolen and the rest have been gently rotting in his garden. In 2010 the Department decided to document everything and fenced it off. You can visit this monumentally overcrowded garden on one day a year when it is open to the public, but they are perfectly visible through the wire fence if you happen to drive by - it's on the D129 in Charente Maritime.<br />
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My 'addiction' if that is what it is, takes a slightly different form to that of Gabriel's but, like his, it's not one <br />
that causes harm to anyone else and if, one day, I finally get it right it will, at least for me, have been worth the effort!<br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-61518246439148294282015-05-29T15:59:00.001+02:002016-08-14T16:49:32.518+02:00Ghostly Communications<br />
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This week has been entertaining....... last Friday, and completely by chance, we learned that the proposals JJ Ignatius Brennan and I submitted in March for two large outdoor installations were selected at the time for an exhibition that opens next week.... but no one thought to tell us! Even with a supreme effort it just isn't possible now. The director of the organisation hosting the exhibition has, however, apologised to us for the curators failing to let us know or answering our emails! Hopefully we will get another opportunity to create the pieces.<br />
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By contrast, yesterday, I got the good news that 'Weaving Ghosts' is being invited to Norway in June 2016 for 2 months, which I am very happy about. <br />
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In the studio working towards 'Weaving Ghosts' I have been having fun teaching myself to make fishing nets. I am using instructions in the wonderful 5 volume series 'Golden Hands' published by Marshall Cavendish that my mother bought in the1970's. It's a gem of a period piece with lots of macrame bags and flower power, but the techniques are as clear as they ever were. <br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-50222802061962730702015-05-14T14:35:00.000+02:002016-08-14T16:50:10.918+02:00Weaving Ghosts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After much consideration this is the title I have finally chosen for my next solo exhibition. It will be in the Shetland Museum in Lerwick for the whole of March 2016 and as the name implies, it will be about weaving and ghosts!<br />
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All the work in the show will use, in some way, materials gathered from the beaches in Shetland. Most of the materials I will be using are jetsam from international commercial fishing such as ropes, nets, crates, mussel pegs, wellies etc. Situated at the northern tip of the gulf stream, Shetland receives tons of it every year and much of which is from places as far away as Spain, France, and Canada. I have written about this stuff before as I have had a love-hate relationship with it for a long time. As a maker it is, for me, a fantastic material store but as someone who despises the profit motive because of the lack of respect it generally has for people and their environments it is also something I detest. Plus, there is way more washed up on the beaches in Shetland than I can ever use.<br />
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There has been a long standing tradition amongst mariners of 'deep
sixing' the rubbish they have on ships that they don't want to carry
around with them, but it wasn't ever really considered to be a danger to
anyone or anything when the things they were chucking overboard were biodegradeable.
The invention of polypropylene has changed all that.<br />
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This ocean trash that comes, primarily, from commercial fishing is now internationally known as 'ghost gear'. Luminously drifting phantom-like in the dark ocean, these nets and ropes trap many species. An international <a href="http://www.worldanimalprotection.org/build-the-global-ghost-gear-initiative">'Ghost Gear Initiative' </a> has been set up this year by the charity, World Animal Protection (formerly World Society for the Protection of Animals) which aims to draw attention to this problem through discussion, agreements and creative recycling.<br />
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But the 'Ghost' bit of my chosen title is not just about these materials, it is also about the lost tradition of basket making in the Shetland Islands. Basketry once played a critical role in survival, now there are only a handful of people who remember how these tools for life were once made. The centuries old tradition of making containers, traps, brooms, mats and chairs from indigenous natural materials died in the space of 50-60 years and by 2000 could officially be declared dead and buried. There were lots of factors that lead to this sad end, but it was irrevocable. Now for the most part the knowledge of how to effectively turn plants into functional objects is only to be discovered in museums and books. There are a few individual exceptions such as Ewen Balfour who, since the passing of Lowrie Copeland is now acknowledged as the guardian of the knowledge of kishies and their making and Ian Tait, the director of the Museum, who knows pretty much everything about the history of these items. But this was once knowledge that existed in every family in the islands because it was important to their survival.<br />
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So, the 'ghosts' are the nets and ropes and other junk, the memories of baskets that are no longer needed, and also in some way the family 'ghosts' of my grandmother Eliza Tulloch and her brothers and sisters who lived for the early part of their lives in the Haa of Midbrake, Cullivoe,Yell . I have so much respect for these people who were self sufficient but also, of necessity, courageous and strong. Sent away from the family for the first time as teenagers to go to sea or to serve as maids in places like Edinburgh, as my grandmother did, many of them never returned to live in the place they always regarded as home.<br />
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It is now my big challenge to try and amalgamate all these ideas into a coherent exhibition that I hope to tour to other venues in coastal locations where it could also have some relevance. If any of you know of any venues that you think might be appropriate please let me know. <br />
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At this stage the ideas are just starting to take shape and I know that the best way for them to develop is just to make, so I am trying to ensure that I get a few hours in the studio every day working on something even if that something ends up being a sample rather than a finished piece. <br />
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I will try to keep you posted about how the work is developing both here and on facebook.<br />
<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-17089397914206778412015-02-13T18:27:00.001+01:002016-08-14T16:50:26.671+02:00A Family of Baskets<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Knowing I am interested in old baskets, Neil, a friend and professional electrician, brought these baskets for me to look at. He spotted them in the loft of an old farm in Charente, Limousin that had just changed hands and where he was working on the renovation. The previous owners were 'paysans' and these baskets were obviously made to be used on the smallholding. <br />
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It is unusual to come across a collection like this. Baskets that are thrown into lofts and forgotten are usually destroyed by woodworm. Coiled straw baskets tend to survive in the Charente because woodworm are not very interested in straw, though they will have a go at the bramble stitching. Sadly the two large frame baskets had either had something damp left in them or been sitting under a leak. As a result the chestnut frame work has become a filigree of worm tunnels in just a couple of places on the bases and are now ready to crumble away. The worms like their wood damp, I guess its easier on their teeth!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eel traps</td></tr>
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Not only is it unusual to find a group like this in relatively good condition but the variety is intriguing. Among them are chestnut eel traps and baskets, one for harvesting root crops which acts as a sieve and a little rectangular one with a pegged base and rim, possibly for egg gathering. Then there are several chestnut and split willow frame baskets, three of which have been made by someone who has done many of these and knows exactly how to do it. The very small one without a handle is beautifully made.<br />
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At first I thought it had lost its handle but in fact the ribs have been carefully cut to a point where they meet on each side so perhaps it was never intended to have a handle. But I cannot be certain, as someone may have shaped the rib ends after the handle had broken. There is also a tiny frame basket, again chestnut ribs and split willow like the bigger ones, but it was never finished. I almost burst into tears looking at it as my first and slightly bizarre thought was that the maker had died before finishing it. Since then I have rationalised it as a "teaching aid" for the grandchildren which makes me much happier!<br />
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It seems highly unlikely that these baskets were all made by the same person, though possibly by two generations of the same family, and the person who made the three brown willow baskets obviously never had access to the 'teaching aid'! These three look much more recent and are great examples of someone just having a go, without much prior knowledge, and arriving at something that functions. It wasn't without a mega struggle though, and if the maker won in the end, the willow certainly put up a good fight.<br />
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In a way I love these baskets as much as the perfectly crafted ones. They seem to prove the theory that basket making is innate in all of us, not the arty farty, tidy, tightly controlled kind of basket making that I and many others engage in, but a raw, energetic, wrestling with twigs to make a basket to gather the crop in before it rains or the winter sets in. How the basket looks being of zero importance in this context.<br />
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There is a similarity with music making which also appears to be innate in all of us. Thomas Brennan, my Irish father in law had only one question for people who said they could play a musical instrument... "can you get a tune out of it?" He wasn't interested in whether they knew their scales or could read sheet music, all that mattered to him was whether or not they could play a tune he could dance to. As far as Thomas was concerned, music was for dancing to, just as these baskets were made for carrying crops and nothing else is therefore relevant.<br />
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Sometimes it seems as though too much knowledge suffocates the life out of things.<br />
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<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828739492654889434.post-75595994584202603702014-12-11T18:47:00.000+01:002016-08-14T16:51:42.377+02:00Ding Dong Decorations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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These straw decorations were on sale in Lidl recently for 2.99€ the box, but it didn't say where they came from, just that there were 56 pieces made of natural straw in the box and that 'these are not toys!' So it gave me an excuse to do a bit of online research.<br />
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Trying to fish out some truths from an ocean of disinformation is usually the big challenge with online research. However anything to do with basketry manufacture is generally quite straight forward because the answer, 90% of the time, is China. But, I was taught, when doing research for my doctorate, that you must assume nothing and never state as fact anything you cannot back up with evidence, which in academic research terms, usually takes the form of a published statement of the fact.<br />
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So, my first task, using the information provided on the box, was to check out the name of the brand <i>'Melinera'</i> and as with most of the 'brand' names in Lidl stores, it turns out that Melinera is just a trademark created by Lidl in 2012 to market a particular type of product. In this case mainly lighting and decorative items including Christmas lights and decorations.<br />
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So, the next search was for images of '<i>straw christmas decorations'</i> and this turned up loads of photos of almost identical boxes, but being sold under lots of different brand names and by lots of companies, at widely varying prices. Some are being marketed as <i>'Scandinavian Straw Decorations'</i> but everybody knows that 56 straw stars made by anyone in Scandinavia is going to cost way more than 2.99€, so it refers only to the Scandinavian tradition of straw Christmas decorations, rather than the place of manufacture. But, could they be trying to persuade some unsuspecting buyer that it means the latter ? Wouldn't it be more honest to say <i>Scandinavian Style Straw Decorations</i>?<br />
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Having seen that the same boxes were being retailed by lots of different companies I now knew that the manufacturer sells the product wholesale, probably at trade fairs. Next search was for '<i>manufacturers of straw decorations' </i>(which in retrospect I could have started my search with, but it only took me a couple of minutes to get this far!). Very quickly you find yourself at the inscrutable face of Chinese manufacturing where few companies have web sites but are listed on a thousand trade directories that appear to be run by the various regional governments or councils.<br />
It doesn't take more than five minutes however to establish that the biggest and most active company (in terms of international trade fairs) in this field is Dong Guang County LIZE Handicraft CO.,LTD.and the fact they show at the Frankfurt gift fair makes me almost certain they are the ones selling these decorations to Lidl which is, of course, a German company.<br />
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Here, in what reads like a Google translation, is Dong Guang County LIZE Handicraft CO.,LTDs own description of what they do.....!<br />
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"The main production straw ornaments, the willow product, the product
has more than 10000 series several thousand varieties, the modelling is
novel, the weaving is fine, the dependable quality, actually the
interior decoration, the holiday thing, above the etiquette contact
rides the high quality goods. The company is equipped with the artistic
exhibit room and has the specialty foreign trade personnel to attend the
Guangzhou Export and Import Fair and the Frankfurt fair. The company
has the consummation management system, and may act according to
different national the standard production to suit the different market
the product. "<br />
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I love this bit... <i> 'actually the interior decoration, the holiday thing, above the etiquette contact ' .</i>...quoi???? and this isn't bad either... <i>'the consummation management system'</i> ... the mind boggles!! <br />
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Many of the Chinese trade directory listings don't have photos but <i>alibaba.com</i> does, so a quick scroll through the pages and there we find what looks a lot like the Lidl box. Lidl are selling the box of decorations for 2.99€ so it is highly unlikely that they have paid more than 1€ for the box. It will take a highly skilled straw craftsman/woman at least 5 minutes to make one of the 5 plait rings or bells in the Lidl box. I don't know what the people who make these things get paid but I don't imagine it is anything like as much, percentage wise, as the middle men and women who are marketing them......so what's new?<br />
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My search started because it did not say on the box where the decorations were made and this is the case with most of the basketry that is imported into Europe. How can we make an informed choice about whether we want to buy something that has been shipped half way around the world if we don't have that information? Until we demand that legislation the most obvious option left to us is not to buy any basketry that does not state clearly where it has been made.<br />
<br />Lois Walpolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04716221852192109373noreply@blogger.com2