Now that all our courses for Weaving by the Sea 2017 are organised and online we can share with you some of the ideas and inspirations behind the workshops to come. Tim has already posted some images on his website here: ....some of my favourite baskets are twined featuring beautiful twined baskets from around the world which will be the inspiration for his course Twining in World Traditions , and no doubt on Tim's travels in Australia this spring he will continue to gather inspiration, samples and some of the extraordinary stories and making details that are densely woven into the diverse aboriginal twining tradition.
Twining traditions exist all around the globe and the technique combined with the specifics of local materials have, over thousands of years, solved a huge variety of practical needs including gathering, winnowing, trapping, storage, costume and decoration. This adaptable technique offers the contemporary maker with one of the most useful joining techniques and all kinds of materials may be woven together utilising it's innate strength.
The special basket below while similar in form to the sieves above was used along the Catalan coastline to hold baited fishing longlines, while not twined this piece combines a braided esparto border with knotted netting which will feature in Tim's first course Flexible Basketry Structures - looping, netting and knotting.
