Catherine Tregaskes

I am a basket-maker using willow as my preferred material, as I love the feel, smell and huge variety available – one willow basket also replaces a large number of plastic bags – with a durable and beautiful, yet useful item. I like incorporating recycled beads into some of my baskets - beads from a children's abacus helped to create my cheery little berry baskets in the photo!

I have been working with willow for fifteen years having started in a very small way making willow star wands at events for a local charity I worked with. My interests and abilities have built up over the years, through a range of courses with several teachers. I now teach  willow and soft basketry courses at various locations in Cambridgeshire and the wider area.

Via the two year City Lit Basketry Course in London,  I have found an additional passion for finely worked twined baskets made out of re-found yarns and threads passed down to me from my Granny’s “stash”. In 2017 I won the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers Basketry of the Year competition with a “twined handbag”.

Since 2017 I have been re-seating chairs using 6 way cane weave and paper rush. In 2019 I have learnt the time-consuming but elegant technique of willow close skein seating. Please contact me for further details about chair seating.

• Skep Making
• Basketry
• Cane (Chair Seating)
• Chair Seating
• Contemporary
• Hedgerow
• Natural Fibres
• Recycled Materials
• Straw
• Traditional
• Willow (Basketry)