Weaving willow ware

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 24

Weaving willow ware

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KAY FORRESTER

Wild Willow Baskets is the name of Greg Welch’s basket making company and his trademark. The baskets produced by Greg Welch and his fellow workers, Chris Flaherty and Lisa Mrkusic, at their workshop in the Peterborough Centre are strictly traditional — in technique and material. Willow is the material and the three either gather it from wild willows or harvest it from the few willow crop planters in New Zealand. Much of Greg Welch’s willow comes from crowns grown by the Christian Community at Cust. Willow crowns sprout from a dozen to three dozen twigs a year and it is these that are cut, soaked, mellowed and woven into baskets. Greg Welch received all his basket making training by watching a Golden Bay basket maker make two baskets. “From there I was self-taught.” He likes the idea of taking the whole process from beginning to end, from collecting the willow twigs to producing the basket. Once harvested the wil-

low is taken back to the Peterborough workshop and stored. It is soaked for a week before being dried for two days under sacks. This makes it very supple and easy to weave, Greg Welch says. He has been making baskets for six years, the last few in Christchurch. Eighteen months ago he had only enough to keep himself busy, a year ago he had taken on a part-time assistant, now there are three full-time basket makers. He is not sure why there has been a revival in the demand for basket ware. “Perhaps its part of the move back to things more natural. Certainly our work is unique in using willow.” Of the dozen or so basket makers in Christchurch only Wild Willow Baskets use willow, the traditional basket material. “Most,” says Greg Welch, “use cane.” He pulls a thin, flexible length of cane from a shelf. “The stuff you buy usually has been worked down until it has no inherent strength left. You buy a cane basket and three years later it’s on its side.”

Willow, he guarantees, will retain its strength.

“We use some cane from Indonesia, thicker lengths for hampers, and sometimes supplejack. That was the main material on the West Coast where I used to work.Willow is the material available in Canterbury and the traditional material so we use it almost exclusively.” The baskets range from tiny ones made from the tips of willow twigs not used in bigger baskets to huge hold-alls. The occasional order comes in for industrial baskets from factories who prefer willow to plastic or steel.

Large baskets are no problem — the longest willow twigs are up to 14 feet long — but square comers and lids can be tricky.

“More time-consuming than difficult,” Greg Welch says. Wild Willow Baskets is one of the exhibitors at this week-end’s Craft Show at the Addington Show Grounds. Seventy exhibits will be displayed in the third show organised by the Dunkley family in Christchurch.

The Dunkleys have organised several shows through-

out the country this year, all successful.

• Greg Welch took his baskets to Auckland and Hamilton for shows there. He estimates he sold $lO,OOO worth of willow ware in Auckland.

“We put the leftovers in the back of our truck and drove back. We sold most of them along the way, just off the back of the truck. They had never seen anything like this in Auckland.” He believes the Crafts Shows are an excellent way of showing work to a number of people.

Fiona Dunkley is pleased with the range of crafts that will be shown.

She, and her brothers Kim and Toby, began the New Zealand Craft Shows two years ago. Now the craftspeople are queuing for stalls and the Dunkleys can retrict their exhibits to only the best offering. The Christchurch show will be opened by the Minister of Tourism, Mike Moore. It will be open from 12 noon to 6 p.m. on Friday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.