BA Spring School 2025: Willow Baskets with Plaited Rush Siding – an exploration of shape and size

Tickets available from 10am 11th January 2025

Spring School at Harrogate Ladies’ College offers four full days to immerse yourself in basketry with top-class tutors. There is also plenty of opportunity to relax and get to know fellow basketmakers from all around the UK and beyond.

Both residential (single-occupancy room, shared bathroom, all meals) and non-residential (includes lunches and Sunday evening meal) options will be available. In 2025 the ticket prices are:
• Residential: £575
• Non-residential: £335

Only one ticket is available per BA member, and material costs are payable directly to tutors at the end of the week.

By purchasing a ticket you are agreeing to the cancellation policy as detailed in the Basketmakers’ Associations Terms and Conditions

This basket is based on the first basket Mandy made almost 40 years ago with the help of Sheila Wynter, which included home-grown willow and rush Sheila had gathered from the river Avon that ran through her farm.You will concentrate on the rhythm of plaiting 3-ply, 5-ply and, maybe, 7-ply plaits from rushes cut in Somerset and Cheshire. The long plaits will be woven into round, straight-sided willow baskets. The baskets will have French-randed bases and be finished with simple track borders.

Suitability: suitable for beginners and those with some experience

Estimated cost of materials: £30 payable directly to the tutor

Your tutor

Mandy has been living and working in North Wales as a basket maker for almost forty  years, using traditional skills to bring out the natural  beauty of her material. From her hillside studio in the Elwy Valley Mandy weaves baskets in her individual and distinctive style, bringing together the varying colours of her homegrown willow, natural twists of honeysuckle she finds woven into a hedgerow, plaited bulrushes and laths of different woods.