Willow
2000-3
Kate spent three years documenting Somerset willow growers and basketmakers .Her journey took her into old willow beds on the Somerset Levels, into the sheds of basketmakers, hurdlemakers and other willow craftspeople making cribs and coffins.
She made paintings and drawings along the way and used the willow charcoal made by willow growers for many drawings. She also collected stories from the people she met whose connection with Somerset willow went back generations.
The book ‘Willow, paintings, drawings and Somerset voices’ is now out of print but used copies can sometimes be found online.
“In getting to know the land, I met the willow growers and basket makers whose families have farmed this flat, often wet, landscape and hand-crafted its harvest, for generations. As I was drawing the local growers and basket makers, I was not in the here and now, I was time-travelling back 200, even 2,000 years, for willow growing and basketmaking in Somerset go back to the Romans and beyond.”
Kate Lynch
