Lorna Singleton

I make baskets out of oak and hazel, both critically endangered crafts.

I made my first oak spelk (or swill) basket in 2010 as part of a coppicing apprenticeship and I fell in love with the material and the basket; the smell, the colours, the proportions and strength.

A couple of years later I learnt to make hazel baskets. After an apprenticeship in hazel coppice restoration, using hazel as a basketry material clicked instantly and I've enjoyed making and teaching these ever since. Hazel is used as a basketry material all across Europe and I love to research different styles and patterns while travelling.

I coppice an ancient oak woodland called Force Knott Wood and all of my oak baskets come from here. I love the heritage of our woodlands and reading the landscape to see how people have worked in there in the past. 

I supply a leather tannery with oak bark and love to use this leather with my baskets. The slow made leather is the perfect companion for my slow grown baskets.

You can buy my products on my webshop and from my studio. I welcome visitors to my studio when I'm working there, see my events calendar for open studio days or message me to arrange a time.

I'm working on new ways to pass on the skills to keep these crafts alive. Wood Water Weave is a year-long spelk basketry course that covers oak, hazel and ash basketry. The next programme starts in January 2025 and will open for bookings in Spring 2024. You can find out more here.

• Basketry
• Contemporary
• Splint Wood / Oak
• Swill
• Traditional