We are are excited to announce that we are creating a new self-paced online class: The Story of Willow—Harvesting, Tending, Processing, & Botany.
To fund the creation of the class, we are offering pre-registrations, including discounts! Your donation of any amount $25 or above comes with pre-enrollment in the class, which we hope to launch this summer. As thanks for larger donations, we are offering gifts of handwoven willow baskets!
What does this class on willow harvesting and tending cover?
Since 2023, Groundwork’s most popular offering has been our willow basket weaving classes. We often give a quick introduction to wild willow harvesting in classes, but that talk can quickly grow to over an hour and consume our weaving time. So, we’ve chosen to create this online class to help get people started harvesting and tending their local willow! The goal of our basketry program is to breathe life into basketry, moving it towards being a living craft, like knitting is in the U.S. One of the big barriers for weavers is sourcing materials—good basketry willows are not found, they are created by human tending in an ongoing relationship with the plants.
This 4-hour class is comprehensive, covering everything you need to tend, harvest, and process your own willow for basket weaving. Beyond the basics, the class goes in-depth into willow botany, land management and how human land use affects willow, relationships people have built with willows in various parts of the world, and so much more! We’re excited for this class because it combines the basics to get you weaving with your own willow, and it also provides a doorway for you to build an understanding of the human and environmental factors that influence your local willow and ecosystem as a whole. Willow weaving is a relational practice, and this class is your chance to really get to know willow as a weaving material and a part of your ecosystem.
Our class outline includes:
- Overview of Harvesting & Processing: Harvesting, sorting, drying, storing, soaking, mellowing, testing for weaving, pro tips
- Finding & Tending Willow: Willow growth habits, learning to read the history of management for any particular willow patch, riparian ecosystems and willow’s responses to disturbance, willow’s rooting hormones, coppicing and encouraging shoot growth, seasonal harvest considerations, environmental factors affecting willow growth, managing stands of willow, working with landowners, attitudes toward willow
- Willow Biology & Botany: willow botany, willow’s adaptations to disturbance, willow’s role in ecosystems, willow’s medicinal properties, different species of willow, cultivated varieties vs wild willow, willow relatives, willow in the West—dams, irrigation, and beavers
- Stripping Willow Bark: differences between brown (bark-on) and white (bark-off) willows for weaving, when to pick, how to store, how to strip skin, weaving considerations
- Harvesting Other Weaving Materials: Plants in the willow family (cottonwoods & red osier dogwood), sumac, soft-fiber plants (dogbane, milkweed, nettle)
- Propagating Willow: Taking cuttings, planting considerations, care and tending, willow varieties
- Purchasing Basketry Willow: Purchasing considerations, reputable sellers