Learn all the skills to make a round willow platter about the size of a large dinner plate or slightly bigger. Skills learnt include how to construct the base of the basket, the upsett, staking up, 3 rod wale and how to weave the top border.

These techniques are a good basic foundation for making a wide variety of willow baskets.

In all willow workshops you will learn about different varieties and treatments of willow and how to harvest, buy, sort and soak it for use in making baskets, sculptures and art. You will also have ample opportunity to ask questions as we work. 

All workshops give you skills for life that you can adapt to your own creations.

All equipment and material provided.

Cost: £90pp

When: Sunday 7th July 2023

Where: Wellington Road Art Studios

Skill level: Complete beginners

Skills learnt: All the skills needed to make a basket (except side weaves with which you make a deeper basket – these are covered, along with handles, on the two-day course in October).

What you will create/take home: A large round willow platter.

N.B. Refunds available up to 14 days prior to the workshop due to preparation of the willow which takes up to 2 weeks to soak and cannot be re-used. I will also refund up to 1 day before the workshop if I am able to fill your space from the waiting list.

Your Tutor: Marie Louise Williams

As well as being the Founder and Facilitator of Wellington Road Art Studios, Marie has taught art and craft workshops to both adults and children in museums, galleries and schools across Wirral and Merseyside, including The Bluecoat, The Williamson Art Gallery, The Museum of Liverpool and Birkenhead park.

Passionate about the environment, sustainability and regeneration, her work on the Eco-schools projects with Wirral Council and Wirral Environmental Network (WEN) has contributed to a number of Wirral schools gaining Green Flag status, the most recent project also being allied with the Tiny Forest Movement. She believes that beauty enriches our world in ways that cannot be counted.

Nature was my playground and my solace as a child, so when I began working with the supple, robust adaptability of willow, I immediately knew I had come home. As a material, it magically transforms into resilient, radiant structures that nurture, enrich and support our lives.

My hope is always that my work, whether creating or teaching, gives rise to a sense of wellness within you, grounded in the solid reality of a beautiful object, lovingly made.