Creating white willow involves a number of processes and a large amount of specialist knowledge and skill. A mixture of patience and haste is also required. Some stages take a great deal of time while for others speed is of the essence. Read more

We launched our new website in early January. It’s faster, more robust and (hopefully) easier to navigate. Please let us know if you find any broken links or any other problems. Since 2001, we’ve been developing a huge range of topics covering low-impact technologies, facilities and activities. But with the current economy and money system,… Continue reading New website and new plans for 2022 – your involvement welcome Read more

Complement your home or outdoor space with an easy chair, rocking chairs or a living willow chair! This guide should help you to build a bent willow chair – a fantastic piece of willow furniture. Building a willow chair is incredibly satisfying. Just imagine, when you’ve finished you can literally sit back and enjoy your… Continue reading How to build a bent willow chair Read more

Featuring weavers, dunnocks and wrens, Ruby Taylor of Native Hands reflects on nests and baskets, asking if birds were the first basketmakers. Read more

With a host of already endangered heritage crafts at even greater risk as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, what does the future hold and how can we play a part in helping heritage crafts survive and even thrive? Sophie Paterson explores. Read more

We hear from Ruby Taylor of Native Hands about her recent trip to the Lake District, learning how to craft an oak swill with basket maker Owen Jones. Read more

Ruby Taylor of Native Hands shares how to make a netted bag using looped cordage and explores the history of using natural fibres to produce wild cordage. Read more

Emily Fawcett explores what it might be like to live like our ancestors, to live the old way, on this land. What would it mean to experience life and the land like the indigenous people of these islands – as hunter-gatherers, to return to the Old Way? Read more

In a post kindly shared from the Native Hands blog, our basketry specialist Ruby Taylor recounts a recent trip to the woods to make a beautiful ash pack basket. Read more

We’re excited to introduce our new Facebook group Living Low Impact – and you’re invited! Read more

The video below shows various stages of the production and finish of a 1-metre tall puppet by Jan Zalud. Jan makes all sorts of things – crafted by hand from wood. Read more

This is an interview with Fran Blockley of Old Chapel Farm about the potential for making your living from making and selling baskets. Read more

We were approached by a young film maker who has produced a video of Owen Jones at work – no interview, no music, just an almost hypnotic and definitely meditative study of Owen using traditional tools and natural materials to make beautiful things. Read more

We have plenty of basketmaking courses where you can learn to make useful and beautiful things out of wicker. You’ll need a bit of practice before you can make something like this, but who knows, if you get to this level, you can maybe think about making a career out of it. Read more

Willow is a native UK plant, which grows well in our temperate climate and is very easy to grow from cuttings. There are hundreds of different varieties of willow. Each variety differs in terms of growth rate, colour of stem and leaf shape. Read more

The Future will be handmade? In the information age, the question has an absurd ring. But I ask after listening to Ashoke Chatterjee at the Artisans House in Mumbai. As a long time President of the Crafts Council of India, Chatterjee tells us that ‘The Future will be handmade’. The question mark is mine.  Read more

How many people do you know these days whose work involves traditional craft skills? For every craftsperson in the UK, there must be a couple of thousand working in telesales. Read more