Basket Making Advanced

 

Advanced  class is taught by Anna Liebmann

These will run on Wednesdays, 10am – 4:30 pm 

Dates: 12 Oct, 26 Oct, 9 Nov, 23 Nov, 7 Dec

 (see also Beginners Class with Janice Hall & Penelope Wilson , Mondays & Fridays)

All classes are on the 2nd floor Poldrate Mill

The tutor will provide prepared basketry willow for the beginners and intermediate classes. Students in the intermediate class will be encouraged towards learning to prepare their own willow but this is by no means compulsory!  Anna can supply small bundles of willow if students wish. Students in the advanced classes will be largely responsible for their own willow and preparation.

Anna will keep a note of materials used towards the end of each class and charge students at the end of the term, with an approximate cost of £40-£50 depending on projects undertaken.

All the basic basketry tools are available to use in the classroom, but students are welcome to bring their own secateurs and /or other basketry tools, if they would like.

BIOGRAPHY

Anna was drawn to basketmaking whilst her children were tiny and she lived and worked at a small land-focussed housing co-operative set in 50 acres of farmland in Lanarkshire.  A want for beautiful toy baskets coupled with the unsuitability of metal work (her previous passion) around toddlers and an abundance of natural materials on the land led her to thinking that making her own baskets would be a good idea.  A lot of willow had been planted at the co-operative for habitat creation, wind shelter, and craft use.  Anna became aware of the versatility of willow and was inspired by its zero carbon footprint.  She loved the fact that she could create a basket with the use of no fossil fuels bar those involved in the production of the secateurs and the chocolate she ate during the harvesting!

Other basket makers, ludicrous perfectionism, and a fear of making unsturdy products, have greatly helped Anna on her way.  She moved to Edinburgh 5 years ago and started selling her products at the Portobello farmer’s market, and teaching locally.  She finds passing on skills and knowledge to fascinated people hugely rewarding and now teaches extensively in the city and beyond.  She still attends craft markets around the city and sells her work in a few galleries and shops across Scotland.

She has taught extensively throughout Scotland and she has been the Basketry Tutor at the Poldrate Arts and Crafts Centre in Haddington since 2014, and has recently also developed an improvers’ class to run alongside the beginners class; where she has been working with the students to reach new skills and basketry techniques that were not part of the classes before.

Anna also enjoys working on commissions both traditional and modern, repair and restoration work, and larger scale installations and has completed a willow boat bird hide for children in Fife, woven willow tipis and other installations for the Eden Festival in Dumfries and Galloway, made (and burnt) a fire sculpture for the Fire and Light Festival on New Year’s Day at the Kelpies in Falkirk, created sculptures on the beach in Portobello, fixed colossal baskets at Jupiter Artland, and in Autumn 2017, worked with the Enchanted Forest to produce three enormous sculptures for their sound and light show near Pitlochry: the theme ‘Edge of the Water’ leading to the creation of three huge woven willow lighthouses.

Anna is a member of the Scottish Basketmakers’ Circle, having spent some years on their committee and editing their newsletter for three of those.

Please see below some of Anna’s work

   
   

Anna’s students enjoying their classes in the Mill.

If you wish to see more of Anna work please click HERE

To join this class please click HERE which will take you to enrolments on the main PACC website