Working directly with nature
- Susan makes her best pieces when she is happy and calm
- She shares her skills widely – from the hospital to the V&A museum
- Her materials are locally sourced
Susan Early has over 20 years of experience making baskets. She combines willow with hedgerow materials to create pieces which are strong, physically and in character. Her homely baskets bring together craft skills, nature and an understanding of form. She studied visual art at the University of Gloucestershire and then completed a City and Guilds course specialising in Creative Basketry. Additionally, she received a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship to study with master basket maker David Drew in France. As a maker she is materials driven and explains when working on larger sculptural work how the willow ‘choses’ a direction, saying “I enjoy letting it tell me which way to go and I follow it”.
Interview
- Do you remember making your first basket?
- I joined a local two-day basket making workshop many years ago. I remember the joy of transforming straight sticks into a round basket and being fully absorbed. I kept making and once I acquired a level of skill, I applied for the City and Guilds course.
- What are your sources of inspiration?
- I am inspired by the landscape in which I live, by nature and the woods I walk in. Shapes in all their disciplines inform me whether it is furniture, fashion or sculptures. Woven willow and baskets depicted in paintings fascinate me too.
- How do you prepare the materials to work with?
- I start every piece I make from willow by carefully sorting the willow into different lengths and thickness. Willow has to be soaked for a number of days and left to mellow so I have to ensure that I have all the right materials ready before I begin a project.
- How does tradition inform your work?
- I respect the highly skilled work of the traditional basket maker, the often unwritten techniques of past and present. I strive constantly to improve the quality of my work. I value this tradition passed down for generations; I want to ensure it continues.
Susan Early is a master artisan: she began her career in 2000 and she started teaching in 2005
Where
Susan Early
