WILLOW WEAVING WORKSHOPS

Here is a collage of some of the workshops that we have held over the years. We are going to organise some more workshops for this autumn/winter and will be advertising them at Tatton Park RHS Show.

Real Garden

Here is a real garden at Sandsend near Runswick Bay just in case the gardens at Tatton Park make people feel inadequate after viewing all that perfection. If you do visit Sandsend have a look at the willow spiling that is supporting the riverbank.

Tatton Park RHS Show

The show starts on Wednesday and we are just hoping for good weather, although we desperately need rain in Cumbria as we are suffering a hosepipe ban at the moment. It rained a lot on Sunday and looks like doing the same today. We will be loading all of our willow stuff into the van and car today, dodging the rain and getting ready to finish setting up our stand. Hope that the gazebo is still standing and that the tent that we pitched on the campsite has not collapsed or been raided by kids.
We will be demonstration willow scupture (animals and birds) and Steve will be making some baskets.
The picture is of our display at Tullie House Museum Open Gardens event, not even a month ago but the weather was lovely, bright and sunny.
Anyone coming to Tatton be sure to bring wellies, raincoat and plenty of food as the food prices at the show are quite expensive. There is a lot to see, there seems to be a big emphasis on vegetables and herbs this year from what we have noticed from walking through the showground to our stand.

willow sculpture

we have had a busy week so far. we were at Bydales School, Marske for 4 days working with students to create a small herd of deer for the school's outdoor classroom. we stayed on a campsite at Redcar which was a bad move as the site was very exposed and the wind was so stong that we were worried that the tent would rip apart in the night. but we did visit some fantastic places after school. we had a great bar meal at Sandsend which is a fantastic place with a lovely coastal valley with lovely cottages with flower-filled gardens. after a sitting in the sun having a beer we travelled on the Runswick Bay which is a fantastic small fishing village near to Saltburn. Saltburn used to be our favourite place in the Middlesborough area but now we are spoilt for choice.
Today we started setting up our stand at Tatton Park RHS Flower Show and al;so installed a willow arch in a back-to-back garden designed by Bridge College, Stockport.

The weather looks pretty grim for the show but we have our fingers crossed.

school sculpture project

 here is a picture from one of our recent willow sculpture days at Hawkshead Primary School

School Art Projects

We have had a busy week with school art projects starting at Chapel Stile where we made a deer and a gruffalo. Next we spent a day at a nursery school in Stockport where all the nursery and reception children made willow fish and helped me to make a deer! On Friday we were at a Primary school in Morcambe where we took part in a mini Glastonbury type festival organised by the school - there was lots of music from groups of former pupils, dance workshops, kitemaking, face painting, our willow weaving and singing workshops. The weather was very hot and summery and it was great fun.
We stayed in Liverpool on Friday night and went to see Jackson Browne in concert. Fantastic!
Saturday saw us at a Woodland Open Day in Huyton, Liverpool where we ran willow workshops.

Today we are at home enjoying the much needed rain. hope it lasts all day as our newly planted willows need plenty of water.

Willow Gruffalo

here is a Gruffalo that we made at Chapel Stile Primary School yesterday. All of the children were involved in the creation and he know lives in the Forest School area