Redstone Willows blogs

Kreel Workshop with Joe Hogan 8th & 9th May 2012

chris — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:13:09 +0000

Thanks to Basketmakers South West for organising this fantastic Kreel making workshop with Joe Hogan at Trill Farm!

The weather started out doubtful, changed to glorous sunshine and ended up witha fair dose of Irish sunshine! Thankfully we were able to work in a large Threashing Barn, which although draughtly, as threashing barns are supposed to be, was dry and spacious!

Redstone Willows proud to announce a new direction!

chris — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:09:07 +0000

We are proud that Simon is now not only making beautiful baskets but in his 'spare' time is now creating beautiful carvings. The photo below shows a work in progress - his Celtic Cross. Incorporating the Triskel, Christian symbols of bread and fish on the actual cross, the outer circle is decorated with the tudor rose, signifying the union of the houses of York and Lancaster. Can't wait to see it finished!

The Boys are back in Town!

chris — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:52:54 +0000

The Boys are back in Town with their devon maunds and Jekyll style trugs. They made these with Hilary Burns at the Basketmakers Association Spring School in York. Fantastic Baskets! Now which of you is going to teach me how to make them?

Busy, busy busy!

chris — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 23:27:58 +0000

We've had a few busy weeks! Apart from harvesting our willow crop we have been installing living willow structures including domes and tunnels and have been restoring order to some structures that have got out of hand too. We have worked with Cheshire Wildlife Trust at Wigg Island at a Team Building Day, St Catherine's School in Bletchingly and a little closer to home at Elworth Hall Sandbach, St Giles and St George and Berkeley, Wisatston to name but a few!

Trentham Gardens take delivery of a series of Willow Spheres and dragonflies

chris — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:23:42 +0000

A series of willow spheres and dragonflies were commissioned by Trantham Gardens to add interest to their woodland walks. These will be installed in the trees after they have been treated to preserve them. The giant dragonflies will hover over the lake.

Cheshire Wildlife Trust Watch Team Building Day

chris — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:47:06 +0000

Saturday 21st January, a Team Building Day for Cheshire Wildlife Trust volunteers. We were using willows which were coppiced on site and taken down to the proposed site of the tunnel for us by tractor & trailer. This should have saved us a lot of time.

Living Willow

chris — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:28:24 +0000

This is a really busy time of year for us but as today is cold and miserable I am catching up on my Blog!

Catch up time!

chris — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:49:39 +0000

As the Sun has been obliterated by black clouds I thought that this was a good time to catch up here a bit!

The Willows Primary School won the Christmas Tree Decorating Competition. Sadly they forgot to take any photos. The decorations were made by the children with our tuition and then decorated with blue ribbon. They did look very good!

The harvest is well underway, much better than last year when we had about 30cm of snow on the beds!

Another couple of Busy days!

chris — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:48:17 +0000

On the day the transport was booked to collect the last sculptures we were at The Willows Primary School teaching the children to make Christmas decorations for the Christmas Tree competition in their local church. In the morning I think that over 60 decorations were made including a big white willow star for the top of the tree. They have promised to send a photo of the decorated tree for me to post here. Should look good!

Where have we been? Busy but still here!

chris — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:37:13 +0000

Over the last 2 weeks we have used masses of willow, worked very long days and completed about 30 willow sculptures. We now have numb thumbs and forefingers. We have just returned from London having installed the sculptures which look amazing.

Our thanks go to the team for their fantastic effort to complete these in record time. They even kept their sense of humour on the last night / morning when they had been weaving for an extremely long shift!