Wild Basketry
Making baskets and natural cordage from foraged plants
Ruby Taylor
Herbert Press
I have friends who weave baskets…but never like this…meet Ruby Taylor, who very obviously marries her love of the natural world with her craft.
The author
I really liked reading about this authors background and what training she has. As someone who appreciates art within the mindfulness and mental health aspect, I was excited to learn that she has training in the therapeutic application of the arts. As she describes in her opening comments within her introduction, ‘making with our hands is fundamental to being human’. It is universally applicable to all and thus can be explored by anyone who wishes to. I also really warmed to her love of the natural world and her encouragement for us to walk lightly upon our earth, if we choose of course to call it ours - respect is needed.
The content
Seven projects taught within this title. More importantly I see this method as a lifestyle. It is a way of connection, to ourselves, others and our lovely location. We could learn to forage and become ‘intimate’ in connection with the plants. We are not out to destroy them, we are out to locate and use them in a way which cannot hurt - this is all taught within this title.
I should have known that there was more to this title than just support to weave a basket…wild…why? Because of the materials used to create the projects.
Andy Goldsworthy is quoted on page eighteen, alluding to the fact that nature and humans are inseparable.
The highlights
Simple thing for me personally. At the back there was a page dedicated to the law on foraging. This may seem a small thing, but it showed care in my eyes.
I loved the quotes spiced throughout this title. For example on page twenty (go read it, I can’t tell you everything!)
The images throughout the book are more weighted at the foraging side rather than a inner studio setting - again fitting for the thematic contect of this book.
The sum up
This book made me feel calmer, settled. Nature has long since had this affect on many and I felt like she had brought a bit of it to me as my own, right to my own home. I loved the illustrations of her as forager and explorer in action - can this be you or I?