Woven Lives Podcasts
Woven Lives began in the summer of 2024. Sue and Kirk have been hosting professional basketmakers from the UK and Europe for three years, throughout this time many fascinating conversations were had over dinner with the tutors they have hosted. These exchanges led to an idea, why not archive through audio recordings, the lives of basketmakers, especially discussing the makers who inspired or taught them. Thus archiving two generations of basketmakers. Each maker also gives advice to the next generation of basketmakers. So the Woven Lives Podcast was created.
The team are sound engineer Tim Palmer whose brilliant sound and editing skills give a high quality feel to the recordings. Jody Kirk is the graphic designer and social media whizz who manages our Youtube platform. Sue Kirk is the producer and interviewer.
Episode 1. Peter Dibble
Peter Dibble is a Norfolk-based basketmaker and bespoke fence builder with twenty-eight years of experience. In this interview, Peter discusses his sustainable methods of growing willow, his basketry and fence-building techniques, the Yarmouth Herring Swill and the basketmakers he has met and studied throughout his career.
Episode 2. Mary Butcher MBE
In this episode, Mary Butcher MBE talks about her basketry tutors Alwynne Hawkins and Barbara Maynard, her fascinating travels to Eastern Europe and Japan and the archiving and collecting of the work of basketmakers who she met along the way. Mary also talks about the exhibitions she has co-curated. Mary discusses her own work and gives advice to basketmakers starting out on their journey as makers.
Episode 3. Francois Desplanches
Francois Desplanches is one of France’s leading basketmakers. In this interview, Francois gives an interesting insight into basketmaking in France, discussing the makers who have inspired him, the fairs he attends and growing willow on his land in the Dordogne. He also talks about his own work including making the unique baskodenn and his experiments with scuttle work.
Apologies the basket referred to as the Irish Sciathog in this interview is incorrect and should be the Welsh Cyntell.
Episode 4. Benjamin Nauleau
In this episode, Benjamin Nauleau explains how his signature French frame basket has developed through three generations of his family. Benjamin talks about the training he received from his Father, Leon and the materials, tools, moulds and jigs used to make this beautiful frame basket. Benjamin also discusses the basket makers who have inspired him and goes on to describe Lichtenfiels Korbmarkt, Europe’s largest basket fair and the community of European makers who make this fair so exceptional.
Episode 5. Alexandra Rita Klaus
In this episode of Woven Lives Alexandra Rita Klaus talks about her 40-year career in basketry and the makers who have inspired her along the way such as Alfred Schneider who was the director of the Litchenfels National School of Basketry, Wilfred Pop, Joe Shanahan, Michael Tirschmann, Yette Melgren and Carlos Fontales. Alexandra gives a fascinating insight into her three-year course at the Litchenfels National School of Basketry, the French basketry fair at Vallabregues, the wide variety of international techniques she uses in her work and how she has avoided using the internet and social media to promote and sell her work.