Endangered Crafts Award for stave basket making

I’m incredibly pleased to have been chosen as winner of the 2018 HCA/Marsh Endangered Crafts Award. This new award, funded by the  Marsh Christian Trust is aimed as craftspeople working on one of the 62 crafts currently listed in the ‘critically endangered’ or ‘endangered’ categories of the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts and secure its survival for the future.

I will be using the award to learn about making Devon stave baskets with Mark Snellgrove, the only current practioner in the UK. These baskets are very unusual as they are constructed like a barrel with the sawn staves individually fitted onto steam bent rims. There is a lot to learn and I’m looking forward to this new challenge and helping to promote and preserve this craft for the future.