First published in No Serial Number Magazine, Issue 12, Spring 2018
In the Spring of 1881, American watercolourist Winslow Homer took up residence at what was then The Hudleston Arms Hotel, in the village of Cullercoats, where the North East of England meets the North Sea. Homer’s paintings recorded, with realism and honesty, not just the working men and women of the area, but their tools and equipment. And their baskets.
Basketry pre-dates both pottery and the weaving of cloth to stand as one of the oldest crafts in our human history. Baskets have been an essential part of everyday life in practically every culture on every continent and could be considered amongst the earliest decorative art forms, used for everything imaginable, from household storage to fishing. Until that is, the 1950’s arrived, when the introduction of plastic meant that the need for baskets lessened against the seemingly stronger, more affordable, lighter and more durable plastic containers that became so widely available, so quickly. When plastic became more popular than basketry, the skills began to fall away, and the basket weavers, that had once been so many in number, dwindled away as the product of their craft was needed less and less.
There is still, however, a fine collection of skilled basketry artists across the world, continuing a craft that has changed very little in its methods and materials since the Iron Age.
One of this number is Ruth Thompson, owner of Sylvan Skills – a business grown to share the basket making traditions with all ages, through workshops, demonstrations, school projects and commissions. Ruth is based near Stocksfield in Northumberland – a mere 20 miles or so from Cullercoats Bay where Homer immortalised the hand-crafted basketry of the local fishing industry.
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