DANISH BASKET MAKER ANNE METTE HJORNHOLM TEACHING CLASSES IN WAINFLEET, ONTARIO 2013

What an amazing opportunity! One of Europe's most talented willow artists - Anne Mette Hjornholm - will be visiting Lakeshore Willows again this summer to teach willow basketry classes.. 

If you like willow basketry, you don’t want to miss out on this unique opportunity to learn from this very talented willow artist. 4 classes with Anne Mette have been scheduled:

Friday, July 19^th 2013

Saturday and Sunday July 20^th-21^st, 2013 (2-day class)

Monday and Tuesday July 22^nd-23^rd, 2013 (2-day class)

Wednesday, July 24^th, 2013

During the 6 days of classes a wide variety of designs and techniques will be taught and your project will be tailored after your preferences and skill level.

Each class will have a theme 
(click on photos to enlarge)

Friday the Tatza basket is taught. This is also called a Polish Bread basket. You will make 2-3 baskets of this type during this one day class.

Saturday and Sunday a wide variety of designs of baskets and purses made on a Catalan base will be available for you to choose from.

Monday and Tuesday again, a wide variety of designs of baskets, trays and sculptural designs "frame baskets with or without frames" will be available for you to choose from.

Wednesday you will learn the
Burkina technique and make 2-4 small, charming baskets at this one day class.







More information about the classes - and a registration form - can be found under the tab "Hjornholm 2013 class" at the top and don't forget to check out Anne Mette's web-site Hjornholm Pil - now also an English version. 

Last year Anne Mette's class was filled within one week! So if you want to take one or more of this year's classes, make sure to register NOW.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Living Willow Workshops Spring 2013

Winter is here, but in another month we will be anxious to get our hands dirty in the garden.
Luckily that's the time to create living willow trees for your patio and garden and we have scheduled a number of workshops during March and April. At the workshops this spring you will be able to make

Harlequin tree

Variations of the twisted tree

Or multi-stemmed columnar trees where a number of living rods are woven together in a circle or square.

For information about scheduled workshops, time, cost etc, please look under the tab "Workshops and Events" at the top.


Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Learning new techniques and honing your skills

Everything new is difficult (for most people, I believe) but perfect practice makes much better perfect. Just think of - if you remember - the first time you tried to ride a bike, write letters, knitting etc. The same is true for making willow baskets.

After I made my first willow basket at a course in Denmark in May 2008 I, unfortunately,  didn't have the opportunity to go home and practice. I simply didn't have any basketry willow yet and I couldn't find any to buy or a teacher who could help. I made my second basket almost one year later in February 2009 with a friend and not until June 2010 did I have my third opportunity to weave with willow at a four day class instructed by Jo Campbell Amsler.




Later that year I had enough dried willow to start making willow bird feeders and slowly I ventured into willow basketry on my own.

When I participated in the HandMade Market for the first time in September 2011, I just had various bird feeders and a few woven trees for sale.

During a visit to Denmark in spring 2011 I went to see Anne Mette Hjornholm - who is one of Denmark's very talented willow basket makers. Take a look at her web-site which now also has an English version. We discussed the possibility of her teaching a course here in spring of 2012 and by the fall of 2011 we knew that it could be arranged. Anne Mette's visit and class here was very successful and gave me an enormous boost.

Different techniques and baskets were taught at the class and in July I met with 3 other students from the class for 3 wonderful days at the Toronto Island working on - and sharing with each other - some of the new techniques learned from Anne Mette.

In the meantime I attended "Willow Gathering 2012" in Decorah, Iowa in June. What a wonderful event! Again I had an opportunity to learn new techniques from a very skilled teacher Katherine Lewis. The rest of the summer and fall was spent practicing my learned skills and I'll tell you: Nothing beats practice in perfecting your skills. I'm getting there.

Rope coil baskets 

Small shopper

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Time to order willow cuttings and rods for the spring

Winter is here and we are not even thinking about harvesting for another 3 weeks or more. By the middle of February, however, we will be looking for days suitable for harvesting the willow - meaning no snow in the field.

Even though you are not thinking about planting any willow for the next couple of months, it is time for you to put in an order for cuttings or rods if you are planning to plant this spring.


Reservations are made as orders are received and orders processed and shipped as soon as we have started harvesting and usually up until the end of April.




The best time to plant willow cuttings and rods for hedges, huts, play tunnels etc. is early spring. 

Order early to make sure that we have what you want - whether you are planning to plant just a few cuttings in pots for later transfer to the garden 

a willow bed for harvesting willow for basketry or other use 
or your garden needs a living willow fence.











As the last two summers were both extraordinary hot and dry, we will have less of the longer rods available this spring, so again, order early for delivery later.




Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Christmas Markets 2012

The time for Christmas markets is here and I just participated in the first one at Vineland Estates Thursday night. It was a great event and I certainly recommend this women only shopping and wine event - so be sure to put a note in your calendar for next year.

Next week-end is the Christmas HandMade Market and this year the event will take place in two locations. I will be at Fielding Estate Winery.

In addition to my bird feeders, different styles of baskets, lanterns etc  I will have many Christmas themed items such as angels, stars, cones, hearts, Christmas trees and more for you. 

For more information about the event this coming week-end click here.

The Christmas show Artful Treasures at The Pumphouse in Niagara-On-The-Lake will be Friday November 30th and Saturday December 1st. 

On that same week-end The Rotary Club has their Holiday House Tour so come down to beautiful N-O-T-L for some Christmas inspiration and shopping at the Pumphouse.

For more information on this event click here.

Looking forward to seeing you there.
 Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

WINTER WORKSHOPS

Just scheduled and posted workshops for December, January and February under the above "Workshops and Events" tab.

Informal Christmas workshop

Rib style baskets

Bird feeders, globes and small baskets


















Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Planting willow in your garden for colour?

It is not unusual to find articles in gardening magazines showing the very colourful stems of willow in the wintertime and most often the featured willows are varieties or hybrids of “white willow”, Salix alba.
Here are a few pointers that are often overlooked.
First of all it is ONLY the growth from the previous growing season that has colour. If you leave your willow shrub unpruned, you will end up with a large shrub with a few small, colourful tips during winter. Therefore – to really get a beautiful colour display you should coppice (cut down to the ground) the plants late winter/early spring as they will grow long shoots during one growing season and they will all have coloured bark. To make a real statement you could plant several plants of the same variety close together (about 30 cm/1foot apart). If you have a small garden and are worried that planting several willows will be too much for your other plants, you can repeat the coppicing (cutting down to the ground) in early summer. Supposedly (and I say that because I don’t have any personal experience/knowledge of this, but have read about it) the willow will not develop a large root if it has to use energy on new growth once or even twice annually.
In my opinion it is not only for winter colour that you plant willow in the garden. Many of the willows have very beautiful foliage, form and colour throughout the year. To illustrate this I have found a few photos:
I will start with Salix x ‘Flame’ as that one is often mentioned as a candidate for winter colour.By the time the leaves drop off, the bark has developed some colour that will intensify as the weather gets colder.
 
Salix x ‘Flame’ has beautifully coloured leaves in spring and early summer and the stem colours will vary from a light greenish/yellow/orange to a darker reddish brown. The two photos marked July 2012 are of the same plant, but photographed from the North and South sides of the plant. The more sun that the plant gets the darker the colour during the summer and these stems are darker on one side than on the other.
Another willow that has been planted in a lot of gardens during the last few years is the dabbled willow, Salix integra ‘Hakuro Nishiki’. A large shrub with pink shoots can look very beautiful, but as you can see on the following photo this willow can also be planted in your mixed bed, coppiced annually and it just looks lovely.
 

The variegated leaves are beautiful and the tip of the branches continue to be of an almost coppery colour during the summer. After the leaves have dropped the stems on this willow is a paler reddish brown.
One of my favourite willows (I have quite a few) is Salix koriyanagi ‘Rubykins’. It grows tall and slender one year rods when coppiced at the end of winter.

The very first leaves in spring are an incredible coral/peachy colour. Later the leaves are darker green, but the tips of the branches remain very colourful as you can see on the photo. Maybe that explains the name ‘Rubykins’? The last two photos show the light green colour of the stem. That is also the colour that the stems have during winter.


The last variety featured today is Salix x acutifolia
 

The winter colour of acutifolia is a very unusual and pretty dark purple that gets a bloom – a whitish waxy covering. If the plant is not coppiced the colour of the two year old branches will look almost as if they have been white washed. On the second photo you can see the red stems on the new growth and at the bottom of the photo you can see the two year old whitish stems (it is a braided Harlequin tree)