THE BASKETRY GARDEN: SNOWTIME

Had to get up out of my nice warm bed this morning to pick up my dear friend and fellow basketry artist Suni Lopez from the station. She was delivering work for the Basketry Exhibition at Art Hub Gallery on Sunday 19th February to celebrate the launch of Practical Basketry Techniques.

I should have kept quiet about the mild winter so far. Now 'the North wind doth blow and we shall have snow.' My north facing back garden gets the full blast and I've not even dared to venture out to look for snowdrops. I'll just enjoy the picture I took of them in the woodland garden at Hodsock Priory in Nottinghamshire - they open for a Snowdrop walk every February.

A few years ago we went to Suni's allotment to cut the brilliant yellow stems of the vigorous willow she'd grown from a small cutting - probably a variety of Salix vitellina. I took them home and began to make a random weave sphere in my back garden. It shone in the early spring sunshine like a golden orb reflecting the acid greens of Euphorbia characias.

The very next day it snowed! - in April! and my golden orb turned into a giant snowball.

My back garden with snow

Interlaced willow snowball illustrated in Practical Basketry Techniques

I don't know anyone who doesn't enjoy making these off-mould interlaced spheres. They're pretty simple once you've established the initial framework with a series of circular hoops. You can hold the hoops in place with string or cable ties until you've done enough weaving to keep everything together. After that it's just a case of weaving each new rod under/over wherever you need to fill a gap. I found it easiest to put the butt end in first and weave away the tips.

You can make these spheres in any size, from whatever material you have in your garden. I have a rampant Clematis montana that needs a good sorting every summer after it's flowered. The older, thicker stems are great for interlacing projects. I made a small sphere from wild clematis and honeysuckle as an alternative to the Button Ball lampshade project we did for 'Practical Basketry Techniques'.

My co-author made the smaller sphere from raffia and twisted wire.

You could hang a sphere from a tree or pergola as my friends in Brighton did. They've found it's become very popular with small birds who take food from the bird-feeders into the ball to enjoy a leisurely snack out of reach of predators.