Sarah Loughlin & Marcus Wootton

Hopewood Baskets

Basketweaver

©Hopewood Baskets

Listening to the land

Sarah and Marcus are custodian of willow beds In Worcestershire
Sarah trained with master basket maker Jenny Crisp, while Marcus is self-taught
All the materials they use come from nature

Hopewood Baskets, a name that honours the locally-grown willow that they craft with, was born in 2022 in Sarah Loughlin and Marcus Wootton’s garden shed. It is a small workshop that the couple set up in their own garden, surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the Wyre Forest. “We live in an area with a long tradition of basket making and willow growing, as well as hazel basketry and coppicing,” explains Sarah. The couple has a shared passion for nature and basketweaving. Sarah, who has a Fine Art Degree, discovered basketry while teaching at a Steiner School, in which there was an emphasis on art, craft and creativity and which she passed on to Marcus, a photographer and restorer. Using tools, techniques, and materials unchanged for hundreds of years to translate their aesthetic choices into objects, Marcus and Sarah create contemporary vessels that are artistic and yet functional in a durable manner.

Interview

©Hopewood Baskets

©Hopewood Baskets

Is the love of nature an integral part of your craft?: We both share a love for nature and the outdoors, so basket making, with its seasonal practices and qualities was something we were both drawn to. For us, there is great beauty in the simplicity of nurturing the willow as it grows and creating vessels in a pure and sustainable way.
When did you become custodians of the willow beds?: We first met Alison, a willow grower and sculptor who worked just 2 miles from our home, in 2022. She had planted around an acre of willow in many different varieties. She used the willow herself for large-scale sculptures, and in December 2023 she kindly asked if we would like to take over cultivating and harvesting the willow to use it in our work.
Does having your own willow beds have an impact on your work?: The experience of growing willow had an immediate effect on the design and creative choices within our work. It opened up new understanding and potential of what can be physically made. It has also been wonderful to breathe new life into the osier beds which Alison invested so much time and care into, thereby continuing the local lineage of this age-old craft in our own small way.
How would you define your skills?: Our craft skills are primarily focused on traditional European willow basketry techniques, with the use of contemporary methods alongside this to create a modern aesthetic. Repetition is a crucial element in developing and honing our skills, allowing our hands to develop an instinctive and intuitive relationship with the material.

Sarah Loughlin & Marcus Wootton are rising stars: they began their career in 2022 and they started teaching in 2022