52. The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers, Basketmaking Day, 25 October 2023


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By kind invitation of Lady Lauriston, Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers, 18 Consorts were greeted at the Dutch Church in Austin Friars with a warm welcome by Richard Turner, Clerk, bearing coffee and biscuits.  We eventually took our places at tables to be faced with a bundle of reeds and a large bundle of damp rushes freshly garnered from Oxfordshire. 

Yeoman Member Anita Vozik, assisted by the company’s Trade Advisor, Ellie Morgan (and her rescue dog Otto), showed us how to construct the base framework for our rush mats.  That part was easy!


Then we wove damp rushes, under and over, and under and over …  That part was simple too – but whenever we had to add another reed that was when I found it very confusing.  Eventually our mats reached a size where we had to thread through further stays at the corners.  And we continued going round … and round … and round …  It was like grappling with an octopus!  Apparently, the term for this stage is a spider.


We had a delicious and well deserved lunch break (washing our hands thoroughly first), courtesy of Lady Lauriston, and her Consort William Newlands of Lauriston, who sadly was unable to be with us due to ill health.

 


After addition of a few more rounds of rushes we were able to turn the edges in, rather like casting off in knitting.  It was important to keep the mats damp throughout to make the rushes more pliable.  Then we had to weave all the loose ends in using a natty little device rather like a large needle.  Then – tral-la!

… to this …

 


So we each learned a new skill and had a lovely time chatting to our fellow basketmakers.  Very many thanks to Lady Lauriston and Richard the Clerk and members who facilitated this event – and our very best wishes to William for a full recovery.

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