Come and join us for Willow Workshops at a new East Yorkshire venue, Oldroyd's Corner in Woodmansey near Beverley.
Oldroyd's Corner is a community enterprise set under a huge greenhouse adjacent to Woodmansey Garden Centre. It's a lovely place just to wander around, and I'm excited to be working with them to offer a progamme of willow weaving workshops. We have the choice of working 'outside' under glass, or in a classroom if it is a bit too hot. Either way it's a great setting for teaching craft classes.
Our initial workshops are our popular garden and basket making classes, both ideal for beginners and garden enthusiasts. Hopefully there will be scope for some sculpture workshops in the Autumn too.
Great for keen gardeners and willow weaving beginners, these workshops are an ideal start to learning a new craft.
Willow Weaving for Gardeners 31st July 1pm-4pm
In these workshops we make 3 simple pieces designed to decorate your garden.
Small introductory trellis
Plant obelisk
Flying or hanging dragonfly
Frame Basket Workshop 11th September 1pm-4pm
This is a great workshop for basket making beginners. We will use different coloured willows to make a simple frame basket which is ideal for foraging or collecting garden produce.
We work in small friendly groups, for these three hour sessions with a break for coffee/tea and cake.
We work with willow which has been grown in Somerset and Suffolk, and specially dried. In order to be suitable for weaving. It is then soaked to make it pliable. We somtimes also use fresh unsoaked willow in very early spring. The willow we use for this workshop will not grow.
There is no age limit but children under 16 must be accompanied by a parent.
Willow is a lovely medium to work with and most people find weaving relaxing and therapeutic. However, it can be quite hard on the fingers. We can find ways to alleviate this for most people, but if you have arthritis or other mobility issues you might want to discuss this with Toni first to see what help we can offer.
Tools will be provided, but if you have them please bring:
Sharp secateurs or garden scissors (many people prefer using ones they are used to)
A pruning knife if you have one
The centre address is:
Oldroyd's Corner
Woodmansey Garden Centre,
Hull Road,
Woodmansey
Beverley
HU17 0RS
Full workshop details and confirmations will be sent after booking.
