Clare Shilvock – Warwickshire Willow

Clare Shilvock (Warwickshire Willow) is a basketmaker creating sculptural and functional work from willow she grows herself in Warwickshire. Her work is rooted in a close connection to the land, working with the seasons and making the most of the natural colour, texture and gentle movement of this versatile material.

Clare developed a real affinity for willow during her City & Guilds Level 2 in Basketry and Creative Design, which she completed with Distinction in 2022. Later that year, she was honoured to receive the Basketmakers’ Association Professional Progress Award in recognition of her developing practice. In 2023, she was awarded a place on the Basketmakers’ Professional Development Programme and, in 2024, completed her Level 3 Diploma in Craft Skills for the Creative Industries (Basketry) at Westhope College, Shropshire.

Her work brings together traditional basketry skills with a more contemporary approach to form and function, creating pieces that are both useful and quietly sculptural. Based in Stratford-upon-Avon and working across Warwickshire and the Cotswolds, Clare has completed commissions for RHS Chelsea Flower Show, BBC Gardeners’ World Live, the World Health Organisation and the Royal Shakespeare Company.  She has exhibited her work nationally and is a member of Heritage Crafts and the Guild of Cotswold Craftsmen.  Alongside her making, she teaches workshops and taster sessions, sharing her skills in a relaxed and welcoming way.

Growing, harvesting and transforming her own willow has become a way of life, reflecting a commitment to sustainability and a belief in the ongoing relevance of basketry today.

• Basketry
• Contemporary
• Garden Structures
• Hedgerow
• Living Willow
• Traditional
• Willow (Basketry)
• Willow Sculpture