Oak

If willow is my passion, it only just beats oak. In fact, my familiarity with oak as a material predates my obsession with willow. Moving onto our tenanted smallholding, there were many areas that needed improving, and I have enjoyed having the help of my carpenter brother alongside me throughout most of these projects. My dreams, his amazing skill (and a huge amount of patience - his side, not mine).

                  Many of these undertakings involved using large chunks of oak, which left us with an array of interestingly chunky off-cuts. Where these could be used again within the project, they were, but many were not specifically useable. From these, those that were too small or not structurally sound due to how they had been cut were used as kindling or firewood. Living in a traditional farmhouse, with woodburning stoves being the only heat source, these offcuts were of great value to us and were always appreciated. However, I could never bring myself to burn those that were still sound. I am not a hoarder by definition, but there was something about these offcuts that made me struggle to part with them. If ever there was a project on the go, one of my favourite weekend tasks would be to sort through the offcuts and put them into their respective piles – burning (useful heat source), or storing (unknown destiny). It filled me with joy to put these unknowns into the shed – they didn’t have a purpose (yet), but they still excited me, and each had something about it that intrigued me – the grain, a knot, a crack adding interest but retaining integrity….

                  While these pieces were slowly filling a shed, I was developing my love for willow. The years ticked by, the oak accumulating, still with unknown purpose, and the weaving improving. As the weaving took hold and I was beginning to develop my own style though, I began to think about the shed filled with ‘oak of interest’. How could I blend the two in a sympathetic way, allowing each to shine, and yet forming a cohesive look? So began my journey into blending willow and oak to make feature pieces for the home. It started with lamps. Willow lampshades are having a moment, but I loved the idea of making the complete unit – a chunky oak base with a willow lampshade. This massively stretched my design skills. Suddenly I wasn’t only thinking about willow with respect to a lampshade and how that might look, but I was having to think about each element of the base unit too. A block of wood and a pile of sticks do not a table lamp make, could easily have been my motto, but I was filled with a vision in my head of how I wanted the finished piece to look, and it was different to anything I had seen.

                  There are perks to being part of a large family, and one of them is having most trades covered by someone. I am extremely lucky, not only to have a carpenter as a brother, but also an electrician as a brother-in-law. He, too, is blessed with extraordinary patience, as I filled many of his evenings discussing and sourcing components, revisiting physics GCSE content, and upskilling in wiring and all things electrical. I even grew my own electrical tool kit, which was something I never envisaged during my school days!

I rummaged through my stock and found some lumps of oak that I thought would be ideal as lamp bases, and then pestered my brother so I could learn how to go about drilling holes, excavating core matter and assimilating general carpentry skills that were completely new to me – I didn’t even have GCSE skills here that could be re-visited. I had to draw a line through getting my own carpentry kit, from both a cost and space perspective, but my brother kindly allows me to use his. Any highly technical, or more commonly, very manual work, he still does for me.

For many people this might have been enough. There is scope and material here to last the rest of my working days, but I was filled with a yearning to make pieces that would form a sympathetic range. The thought of a corner in a house illuminated by a table lamp and then framed by complimentary feature willow and oak pieces spoke to me. I am, of course, biased. I love willow and oak and my own home is testament to that, but they are timeless materials and generational pieces. I therefore set to work designing a core range of floor standing baskets and wall hanging shelving, each blending these two materials. The inspiration at this stage were barrel staves, deconstructed from surplus barrels from the brewing industry. They gave my studio a wonderful smell for a while, but sanded and waxed, they offer a unique and organic softly rounded shape that works so beautifully with my willow. 

These projects collectively fill my time and keep me striving for perfection – impossible really, when you’re working with natural materials. They also allow variety, so that while collectively they form a united look, working on each style requires something slightly different of me and my skills. I never feel that sense of boredom that might come with repetition, instead I find a rhythm of weaving and settle into this, each piece being slightly different to the next.

I suspect, and hope, that my work will slowly evolve. That as I continue to explore I will find myself curious to try new things, and I hope that they will always be functional but striking, truly representing both my vision and my love for willow, and for oak.