Plant pot surround (all day)

What you will make

Use a woven willow pot surround to disguise garden centre plastic plant pots; no more fake pots on your terrace patio or door step and no expensive and breakable containers;  simply slip the plant in its pot into the bottomless woven willow cover.  They will last 2-3 seasons or longer if they are sheltered in a sheltered spot.  Make more covers when you get home to cover pots.  

What you will learn  

• Setting up the plant pot on a template

• Inserting the stakes

• Weaving up the sides (waling and French randing)

• Joining the willow

• Weaving the border

• Removing the template and securing the base

Meet your tutor: Louise Brown

Louise’s interest in basketmaking was sparked more than 20 years ago when she enrolled in a local basketry course. “From that moment I was hooked;  the possibilities for creativity out of, essentially, a pile of sticks were endless and I wanted to learn all the techniques”. Since then she has deepened her  knowledge through attending as many workshops and courses by as many different basketmakers as she could find or afford. The City Lit College in Covent Garden, West Dean College near Chichester and Westhope Craft College in Shropshire have all provided her  with inspirational teachers and teaching.

Louise has been a member of the Basketmakers' Association from her earliest days in basketmaking. “This inspiring voluntary organisation opened my eyes to the incredible diversity within basketry, both traditional and contemporary, and to the many makers in this country and overseas. I have just completed two years as Chair of the BA”. Gaining the City & Guilds qualification in basketry, followed by a teaching certificate, gave her the confidence to share her passion with others through teaching. “I now run a comprehensive range of workshops and progressive courses in the Winchester area, as well as adult education classes in Winchester and other venues," she says. "I love sharing my craft with others which is why I so enjoy teaching basketmaking. Class sizes are always small so that I can give plenty of one-to-one attention, but this means that some workshops fill up quickly.”