Sussex Prairie Garden is open until 13th October 2024. Our opening days and hours are wednesday to sunday . 1pm until 5pm . Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays . Dogs are welcome.
Our next super Event will be our Beautiful and Useful Craft Fair this coming weekend 14th and 15th September - 11am until 5pm - expect over 30 exhibitors all set in a glorious garden setting . Delicious refreshments , live music ,art exhibition , plant sale and of course homemade cake. Dogs very welcome !
Natural Coiled Basketry Saturday 22nd – Sunday 23rd September 2018 9.30 am – 1.30 pm
£95 including all tools and materials
Be inspired ! Capture the spirit of Sussex Prairie Garden and take it home as a basket!
In this workshop we will work with Sussex Prairie plant materials harvested in 2017/2018, alongside other materials to make beautiful ‘exposed core’ coiled baskets where the lovely natural colours of the dried plant material are highlighted. For colour junkies, dyed raffia and coloured linen threads will be available to introduce a shot of ‘flower power’.
Coiling is an ancient and traditional basketry technique used widely around the world to create both functional and ceremonial baskets. A plant fibre core is coiled and stitched together, with the kind of stitching used adding rhythm and extra pattern to the basket. Exposed core basketry lends itself to contemporary basketry and can be used to create sculptural forms as well as functional baskets.
We will cover the basics of identifying suitable plant material, harvesting, drying and storing plant fibres, preparing for coiling, shaping and stitching coiled baskets using three coiling stitches. Coiling is a slow and meditative basketry technique so participants can expect to make one medium sized mat or a small basket over the weekend.
The course is suitable for beginners/improvers and the teaching will focus on contemporary applications of this ancient technique.
Tutor: Julie Rignell.
I am a former educator, art therapist and psychotherapist with a life long interest in plants , gardening and the natural environment. Always a maker and crafter, I settled on basketry while creating a riverside garden in Normandy where I started to make baskets with some of the plant material generated, rather than just composting or burning it! I recently qualified as a basketmaker via the City Lit and am now a full time fibre artist and basketmaker, specialising in using non traditional plant fibres in my work.
To book a place or make further enquiries please contact juliesnaturalbaskets@gmail.com
julierignellbasketry.wordpress.com
Instagram @naturalbasketry
Paul & Pauline McBride,
Sussex Prairie Garden
Morlands Farm, Wheatsheaf Road (B2116),
near Henfield, West Sussex, BN5 9AT
