Reflecting on 2024 and hopes for the year ahead

I hope your festive season is peaceful and filled with rest, good company and time for some creativity. I’ve been thinking back on the year we are leaving, taking time to reflect on my creative journey, and thinking about what I hope to build on in 2025.

Achievements I’m proud of this year include the first exhibition of my baskets in Inverness Museum and Art Gallery back in early 2024 and a;sp creating this website. But most of all I’m happy that my baskets have improved a lot this year, and my confidence is slowly growing. I’m thinking about sharing my passion for willow with others in 2025, maybe running a few wee workshops in the second half of the year, making sustainable seasonal decorations. Watch this space, it will depend if I have enough willow left to offer this.

I was very grateful for the opportunity to go to Ireland again thanks to a VACMA award, spending another week with Hanna Van Aelst learning new basketry skills and techniques including fitching and square work. Square garden trugs and oval bags are high on my project list for 2025. I am getting much better at adding straps onto bags and have found a way to attach the straps securely, as well as making adjustable straps. My main aim is to make something comfortable to wear that is also robust, and will last a long time. I’m still working on the design and shaping but I am really enjoying weaving these.

I also made a huge leap in weaving lampshades thanks to a three-day masterclass with Anna Liebmann at the Autumn Gathering of the Scottish Basketmakers Circle in Inverness and I hope to weave many lampshades this year. After the gathering Hanna came back to Skye, which was so special. We wove backpacks together and it’s one of the baskets that I now love the most.

There will be log baskets and small round berry/egg baskets available in 2025, as I always have very long, chunky willow rods, and short, skinny rods to use (I never have enough of those ideal 4 foot rods).

I haven’t had a chance to fully hone all of the new skills that I’ve been shown in the last year, and this is my goal for the year ahead once the winter harvesting is complete. Things will be slow, as I am going to keep my youngest at home with me a bit more, having lots of adventures together until they start school after the summer holidays. The beauty of this work is that I can weave around my family’s needs.

In addition to honing new skills and improving the baskets I make, I will try not buying willow, and using only my home grown willow from the croft this year. This will likely mean less baskets, but I think each one will be more special because of this. I also want to spend more time on the croft this year giving the land the love it deserves. My aim is for the baskets I make to reflect the colours and the shapes in the landscape around me. The natural world gives me endless ideas and inspiration and the colours of willow I grow here help me to achieve this.

Below is a collection of some the baskets I’ve woven during 2024. The colours in the willow are a result of the variety of willow and the environmental conditions when the rods are growing and drying.