Plastic And Wickery

A gleaned demonstration of a 'wickery method' that would be much better demonstrated in waxed paper straws, coconut fronds, almost anything EXCEPT PLACTICstraws. These straws have a very nasty habit of finding themselves at sea doing all manner of damage.

True 'wickery' returns itself to the earth gently!

The Stuff of Wickery in Launceston's City Park

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Launceston City Park is Australia’s third oldest colonial garden. It was the ‘Launceston colony’s’ first food garden and trial space for the testing of European plants – and plants from elsewhere – in regard to their usefulness in Tasmania’s, rather Van Diemen's Land's,  colonial enterprise. Very little attention was paid to the ‘usefulness’ of local plant life. Given that it was so very different to the plant life of home, coupled with the Terra Nullius idea, Van Diemen’s Land was pretty much a ‘blank canvass’ upon which a cultural landscape could be constructed.

Curiously, looking back from the 21^st Century Launceston was arguably one of Van Diemen’s Land’s most fecund cultural landscapes well watered as it was at the confluence of two river that drained in excess of 20% of the island. Nonetheless, ‘the place’ was considered somehow ‘barren’ in a colonial context in so much as it lacked the fecundity of home – uncivilised and empty as Van Diemen’s Land was imagined, lacking in deciduous trees, lacking hooved animals, lacking the fruits of home, etc.

The ‘First Tasmanians’ , the palawa people, had spent millennia placescaping the place they understood a ponnrabel [LINK] and they clearly understood it fecundity very well. Just like elsewhere in Australia, palawa people were not really asked about their relationships to and with this place where it was imagined they occupied it alongside, and along with, ‘the flora and the fauna’. The legendary arrogance of explorers such as Burke and Wills, Leichardt et al, whose disinclination consult with ‘the uncivilised natives’ led to their ultimate demise. Yet, Van Diemen’s Land turned out to be somewhat kinder place albeit that its palawa cultural landscaping largely went unnoticed.

Willows were planted on this site along with a whole range useful plants. Curiously the ‘weeping willow’ came with a Napoleonic narrative in that they cuttings they grew from were apparently significant because they came from a tree that it was thought to have overhung Napoleon’s grave on St. Helens. This is not a willow that is useful for basket making. 

However, the story goes that the willows that are fit for this purpose arrived in Launceston with a convict and apparently, they were planted and managed as an ‘osier’ along the banks of Distillery Creek near Hobblers Bridge on Launceston's outskirts.

It turns out that near these weeping willows with their Napoleonic narratives a range of ‘wicker plants’ have been planted. They are not there for their ‘usefulness’, not even remotely, but they do offer a calming and pleasing aesthetic. Yet to see these plants together in this situation and to ponder upon the narratives deliberately and coincidentally embedded within the placescaping is somehow reassuring.

Tom Griffith Lecture

Listen to this for a perspective of a world where 'wickery' is not a wacky idea.

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A Wickery Narrative

No more words required!

WICKER WONDERLUST AT DESIGN TASMANIA

clementineblackman@gmail.com

MOBILE: 0432 264 369 

WICKER WONDERLUST MARCH–MAY 2018 

Design Tasmania is pleased to present an interactive exhibition exploring the unique relationship between Tasmanians and wickery. From Indigenous heritage to colonial industry, historical significance to contemporary usage, Wicker Wonderlust aims to explore how baskets and woven wares perform in history and practicality.

Design Tasmania will be hosting a series of events and talks aimed at generating community involvement. Weaving workshops, conversations with artisans as well as a portrait series of You and your Basket we aim to discover more about wickery through the evolution and hive-mind of this exhibition. 

The exhibition will culminate in a presentation of discoveries and portfolios developed over time with community members' baskets to be included in this evolving showcase of Wicker Wonderlust.

WE WANT YOU!

Come in and bring your basket for display in our exhibition space, the more storied your piece, the better; All shapes, sizes makes and models welcome. 

5:30-7:30pm Tuesdays 6th & 20th of March, 3rd and 17th of April and 1st of May. 

RSVP to bit.ly/WICKERWONDERLUST 

EVENTS PROGRAM 

● WORKSHOP– Weaving workshop with Tasmanian Indigenous elders date TBA 

● FLOOR TALK– History of Australian Basketry with John McPhee (former Decorative Arts Curator at The National Gallery of Australia date TBA 

● INTERACTIVE– Basket drop offs 

5:30-7:30pm Tuesdays 6th & 20th of March, 3rd and 17th of April and 1st of May

● CLOSING PARTY– End of exhibition reveal of community participation c. MAY 25th 

PRESS CONTACT– clementineblackman@gmail.com        0432 264 369

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW

Autumn on Trevally a While Ago

It was on Trevallyn and the seeds came from somewhere else as did the basket ... BFF|7250| 688

Elaborate Wickery Made To Order (USA?)

PHOTOcache Orkney 2003

I stumbled across these three snaps this morning (which I’d hastily taken when visiting Orkney in Kirkwall, Orkney Isles, c. 2003). Mostly straw I think.

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Orkney Chairs

An Orkney Chair is unique part of the rich heritage of the Orkney Islands. They are wooden, handcrafted and have a straw back. We approached master craftsman Robert H. Towers, who has been making Orkney Chairs for over 38 years, to ask him some questions about the history and process of making them. Make sure you visit his website at http://www.orkney-chair.co.uk/ to find out more!

Q. Can you tell us a bit about the history of Orkney Chairs?

A. Orkney Chairs at first were nothing more than a low round stool covered with straw. Orkney is void of timber, so straw was a good agricultural by-product to use. The design then developed into a low chair with a straw back some two feet in height. The hood was added, possibly to shelter the occupant from draughts. At this stage the seat remained round and the covering of straw went down to the floor..... Click here to read more from the source

A FUNDfind

BALLARD BASKETS

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RUSH WICKERY IN THE UK

Scirpus lacustris 

RANGE: Europe, incl UK, south and east from Lapland to Africa and Asia. N. and C. America, Polynesia.  A PERENNIAL growing to 2.5 m (8ft 2in). It is hardy to UK. It is in flower from Jun to August, and the seeds ripen from Aug to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Wind.Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers moist or wet soil and can grow in water....Root - raw or cooked. Rich in starch, it can be dried and ground into a powder or made into a syrup. The buds at the end of the rhizomes are crisp and sweet, making excellent eating raw. Young shoots - raw or cooked[. Used in spring. Seed - ground up into a powder and mixed with flour for use in making cakes etc. The seed is small and rather fiddly to harvest and utilize. Base of mature stems - raw or cooked. Somewhat tough. Pollen - raw or cooked. Rich in pollen, it is mixed with flour and used in making cakes etc..... The stems are frequently used for making matting, chair bottoms etc and thatching. They were at one time imported in large quantities for this purpose. The pith of the stems is used in paper making.

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Rushwork in Pavenham 

Rushwork has been carried out in Pavenham since the mid 17th century. Several shops in the village produced large rolls of matting for covering floors of large buildings, including cathedrals and the Houses of Parliament. Other smaller rolls were cut up to make dinner baskets. ........... The common bulrush has been harvested in Pavenham for at least 200 years. The rushcutters waded, often chest deep, into the river Great Ouse, and cut the rushes using a 'Rush Hook'. The rushes were then bundled into 'Boults' and stacked together to form rafts, or 'Rucks', which could be punted along. ........... In 1946 Mrs Pamela Morgan revived the rushwork trade in Pavenham, which had all but died out due to cheap imports from abroad. She extended the range of products to include many different styles of baskets and tablemats, marketing her varied wares all over the British Isles. She also gave lessons with the help of local people. ........... A new generation continues the work. The rushes are cut using traditional methods and carefully dried to preserve the beautiful colours of the rushes. ........... Products include hats, tablemats and baskets.

The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers

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Among the primitive crafts, basketmaking is one of the oldest known. Older than the weaving of cloth, more ancient than the early ceramic art, the interlacing of twigs into wickerwork is in all probability contemporary with first clipping of flint into arrow-heads. .......... One of the oldest complete Baskets in the world by courtesy of the British Museum (3000 BC). Basketmaking has been called the mother of pottery, as a potter used a basket mould long before the invention of the wheel. Pieces of Neolithic Age pottery show that the clay had been moulded around a basket structure. Stone Age pots often were ornamented with basketwork patterns. The picture in the slide show above shows one of the oldest complete Baskets in the world (3000BC), courtesy of the British Museum. .......... Although basketwork is of a more perishable nature than pottery, due to the extremely dry atmosphere and the preserving sand, it is chiefly in Egypt that ancient baskets in a good state of preservation have been brought to light after being buried for many centuries. .......... The Basketmakers' Company possesses a small Egyptian "shabti" basket made of fibre, belonging to the XIth Dynasty and dated 2000 B.C. These rare baskets, found in mummy cases, contained food for the "shabti", little figures who accompanied members of the royal household in the after-life. The Company also possesses a fragment of pre-history coiled basketry lining dated about 4000 B.C. .......... Moving through history, we encounter houses built of wattle, shields fashioned of wickerwork, coracles or very large baskets covered with hide which the Romans saw on the Thames when they first came to this land. .......... The first Christian church in Britain, in Glastonbury in Somerset, had a roof of straw constructed on a structure of wickerwork. Relics from this Church dated first century A.D. have been found preserved in the mud deposits of ancient fenland. The first monastery of Iona founded in 563 A.D. by St. Columba was made of wickerwork as the early chroniclers have written "sent forth the monks to gather twigs to build their hospice". .......... Thomas Birch, a basket-maker in 1776, erected a scaffold of wickerwork around Islington Church steeple so the ascent to repair the steeple was rendered safe. Some two thousand Londoners paid sixpence for admission to the wicker staircase. .......... Formation and early records of Basketmaking in the City .......... The Basketmakers' Company was established by an Order of the Court of Aldermen on 22nd September 1569, and is fifty-second in order of precedence among the Livery Companies. There are, however, earlier references to basketmaking in the City, particularly in the records of the Brewers' Company for 1422. .......... By ancient custom, only persons free of the City were allowed to sell any wares by retail, or occupy a shop within the City or the Liberties thereof; a privilege which had been confirmed by several Acts of Parliament. Edward III encouraged the settlement of foreign artificers in London although Edward IV limited the number of apprentices and restricted foreigners again.