Helpful Basket Making/ Weaving Resources…..
When I first ventured into learning basketmaking techniques five years ago, I encountered challenges in finding reliable resources. Despite Ireland's flourishing Willow Basketry industry, many courses were beyond my budget and often located far from my home. With young children to care for, attending these courses became impractical.
To assist fellow aspiring weavers, I've created a curated list of valuable resources and books that helped me on my journey. These tools may also prove beneficial to you as you explore the beautiful art of basketmaking in Ireland. Whether you're seeking beginner guides, advanced techniques, or inspiration from master weavers, this collection aims to support your creative process and enhance your skills in weaving stunning, unique baskets.
Foraged Fibres - Suzie Grieve
I started my journey with Foraged Fibres, she has quite a following on Instagram and Facebook and I fell in love with her tiny baskets, she is very generous with her knowledge and posts a lot of video content on her social pages; she also set up this buy me a coffee page which has great tutorials https://buymeacoffee.com/foragedfibres
Fibre Basketry Techniques - Averil Otiv
I have found this book invaluable and it lists a variety of techniques, the tutorials were easy to follow. There is a small section on foraging at the front of the book along with recommendations for other useful materials, there are good photographs of professional crafter’s works using the techniques. I found this book easy to follow, well laid out and great for the fundamentals; Unfortunately it seems to be self published and I can’t remember where I bought it; I found it mentioned here: https://artison.co.uk/tutor/averil-otiv/
Rush Basketry, Weaving with Eight Makers
This is a great book with easy to follow tips and tutorials, the photos are of good quality, I didn’t really use the whole recipes with rush as I couldn’t find any but using locally foraged grasses and stems I dissected the recipes and the book taught me some really nice weaving patterns, I really enjoyed the plaiting section and constantly revert to it.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rush-Basketry-Weaving-Eight-Makers/dp/0951111078
Fibre Arts Take Two - Weaving for Fibre Sculpture with Harriet Goodall
I enrolled in this course a few years ago and couldn’t recommend it enough. It was a complete game changer for me and really filled in so many gaps in my knowledge that I wasn’t getting anywhere else with all of my searching. There are many online basketmaking offerings these days so do look around but I just loved Harriet Goodalls course. You get lifetime access to the course content so you can do it at your own pace, the videos are easy to follow and shot really well, I love Harriets work and her relaxed attitude; it really goes through the fundamentals so well and encourages creativity, the facebook group that comes with the course is so welcoming and encouraging; it is a melting pot of creativity It is an amazing offering really and I am grateful that technology has made this possible.
At the end of the year you get the opportunity to enter a piece into the final year exhibition as a kind of “graduation” and they create a very professional book, I thought this was a nice touch although you do not have to take part if you would like to wait until the following year.
It is very much a study at your own pace course so you need some degree of get up and go, it is self led learning. However, I personally loved this way of learning; I always struggled attending in person courses, never having the time, with young children, or finding myself changing what I was making to suit other peoples tastes, or holding myself back to keep in line with the course materials. I really excelled with the freedom that this course gave and it really fit in with my life; I loved experiencing the sculptural side of weaving and it has led me directly to where I am now. If you are interested and you have the money and drive.. Go for it!
https://www.fibreartstaketwo.com/courses/harrietgoodall
Have you found any helpful basketry/ weaving resources? I would love to hear about them in the comments!
