OXFORDSHIRE BASKETMAKERS

Thanks for having me! I'm very glad it all worked as well as it did; a pleasure to be part of the day 🙂

It was such a lovely day! Amy's talk was completely fascinating, and it was so good that so many members came. Founder members / some of the most longstanding members were keen to say how much they enjoy the new energy and relevance the committee is bringing to OB, which was lovely to hear.

A really interesting romp through many thousands of years of basketry history delivered with interesting tales and stories all relatable now as it was then. The Ashmolean was very impressive and it was lovely to spend some time in the garden at the meeting house enjoying the Autumn sunshine chatting to other members and catching up. It was very well attended and it looked like everyone enjoyed their time together.

A truly welcoming and inclusive event. A visit to the Ashmolean is always a joy and it was great to be viewing the exhibits with a different eye. It was brilliant to see so many people attending and a good reminder that some members are researchers / collectors / historians rather than necessarily active makers. Also, for some, membership is about keeping their love of basketry alive when their bodies have become less cooperative in terms of making.

A huge thank you to Amy for such a fascinating talk - a real whistle-stop tour through Ancient Greek and Roman basketry. Isn't it wonderful to have your eyes opened to something you hadn’t really thought about before. I know I’ll never walk around a historic Greek or Roman site again without looking for signs of basketry! As Amy said, perhaps we’ve been looking in the wrong places, so I’ll certainly be looking around the edges and away from the people from now on. It was also lovely to have that connection back to some contemporary Greek basketry practices - I really liked those cheese baskets. Thank you, Amy!

What a lovely group and a great venue! I’m super proud of the baskets that everyone made, especially in the heat of the day.  So much determination and stamina.

Delightful, challenging and so much fun! Excellent tuition - admirably well thought through and explained/demonstrated for all levels of experience. Tutor warm and friendly, patient and encouraging. Amazing variety of high-quality, home-grown and hand-harvested materials to work with.

Thanks for organising the course and looking after us so well. Such a lot of planning and hard work must have gone into the workshop to make it run smoothly. I had a brilliant time. Clare is a great teacher and we covered a lot of ground. Hope to go on another of your courses.

As a first-time basket maker, never would I have imagined that I could come away from a day-long course with a basket to treasure.

Overall it was a wonderful day. There was plenty of breathing space between each taught element, and drinks and biscuits were on hand to sustain us. I picked the course as offering a result that was striking, and by the end of the day I was struck not just by the effectiveness of the design, but amazed that I created such a satisfying object in the time available.

Huge thanks are due to Clare for her expertise and teaching ability, as well as great sense of humour, to Charlotte who offered encouragement and refreshment, and Alice who introduced us to the wonderful venue.

Clare is an incredible teacher and made a very complex craft accessible to total newbies. So many skills were learnt thanks to her; she kept us weaving until the magic was complete Intense, hard work but also fun, interesting (lots of cultural and botanical history and ultimately utterly rewarding when we gazed on our creations. Thank you

This was a totally immersive workshop, excellently paced with satisfactory results for all! I thoroughly enjoyed the course and thought Fred was great.

I found it a wonderful workshop. It was in a perfect location for me as I live this end of Oxfordshire. I thought that Fred was very generous in what he had prepared for us, and imparting his knowledge. I loved learning how to make cordage. I used the nettle cordage I made to edge the top of my basket. I will definitely do some gleaning myself and see what else I can use in my garden and the hedgerows. I found is so inspiring, especially as I have just finished reading 'Weaving Nature'.

Such an inspiring, peaceful and beautiful day. I have been looking at plants, and their potential for making, in a whole new way ever since.