A woven chair for the garden

As regular readers of my blather will be aware our holiday this year was to the UK.  Our third stop was at the Binacre Barn in Somerset.  As well as being excellent restorers of the Barn and keen gardeners the owners of the Barn did very interesting things with willows.  This included making a living willow chair.  To my great surprise we don't seem to have a photo of that so here is a willow pig (also at the Barn) to give the idea:
It emerges that this area is a centre of osier use, probably reflecting the willows enjoyment of the considerable dampness of the nearby Somerset Levels. We also have a good supply of willows and had taken some osiers for weaving purposes.  To keep them supple they had been residing in a bucket and had not only stayed supple, but sprouted leaves and roots!   A friend who was born in west Somerset , and is a skilled basket maker offered to help us make our own living willow chair out of these mini-trees.

The following images capture the process.  Updates will be issued from time to time as the plants grow and get disciplined into the required shape.


Comments

Denis Wilson said…
Interesting.
I have seen images of woven sculptures (like your "pig"), but the problem of the damned things growing would worry me.
Denis
23 October 2010 at 23:20:00 GMT+11
Flabmeister said…
Denis
A very valid concern (as always). This species of willow seems not to send out suckers and although we have about 8 of them growing by Whiskers Creek they aren't spreading. Of course, when we prune it there will have to be effective hygiene to stop the offcuts from forming roots and getting a hold.

Martin
24 October 2010 at 06:05:00 GMT+11
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