Wicker Collection Tasmania

These four baskets are a demonstration of the diversity of WICKERwork. Typically, ‘wicker’ is a class of products made from a range of plant materials – domestic items, industrial storage and handling units, furniture, etc.         

Typically woven, but sometimes constructed via other techniques, the work is made from any one of a variety of cane-like materials, including rattan, willow, reed and bamboo. Also, there are times when a variety materials are used together for aesthetic and/or functional reasons. .

Thus 'wicker' is not an any one material, but rather a technique and/or a class of work. The word wicker is believed to be of Scandinavian origin: vika which means to bend in Swedish, and vikker meaning willow. .

Wicker is traditionally made of material of plant origin, yet increasingly plastic and other fibres are also used and increasingly as making processes become industrialised and automated. 

By design, 'wicker' is light yet sturdy. This makes it suitable for products that need to be handled often, move and store smaller objects about – fruit, fish, component parts, etc. – and furniture that will be moved often. A variety of plants are used such as reeds, grasses (including bamboo), creepers (including rattan), and thin tree branches (especially willow). 

Rushwork and wickerwork are terms used in England and Anglo communities globally. Somewhat interestingly industrial processes employed a range of similar organic materials to produce equivalent product to those that are rooted in 'folk traditions'. Likewise, PLASTICtechnologies are increasingly overtaking WICKERwork as the production of the class of objects once produced 'by hand' and from organic materials