Blog 03 – My Life with Willow

In 2000 I became pregnant with my first child, a daughter. When she was born in early 2001, I had an epiphany. Having had time away from work, preparing for and then looking after this new life I knew I needed to do more with mine. My drifting was over; so I started an environmental degree with the Open University. I loved this time of my life; I had a part time job at a supermarket in my hometown and was able to focus my energies on my daughter and learning. In 2004 I began volunteering at the Alternative Technology Centre in Hebden Bridge, mostly doing research on available resources for children and young people. I was researching all aspects of environmentalism; from the latest technologies to wildlife friendly gardening. Sometimes, while there, I helped at events for incoming school children. One of these was weaving with Willow, making plant supports with 2 local gardeners using locally cut living Willow. I immediately loved it! How it smelled; felt in my hands, how it moved when worked.  

Over the next couple of years, I set up a nature club “Wildthings” inspired by my favorite book as a young child at my daughter’s school and at a local Permaculture site called Offshoots, at Towneley Park in Burnley. They happened to have Willow growing in the Old Walled Garden there. Nobody used it and this was freely available; local and natural this resource became a staple in our seasonal children’s activities. I got my Permaculture certificate, my general craft skills were developing nicely, things were going so well, cumulating in my second pregnancy in 2006 with my son.  

But things were about to take a series of unfortunate events spiraling from me becoming increasingly poorly during my second pregnancy. Misdiagnosed, it wasn’t until after his birth that I was finally admitted into hospital with a brain tumor. I was successfully stabilized and operated on to completely remove it and spent the next couple of years recovering, bringing up a baby and my now 6-year-old daughter. This was the most traumatic time of my life, we financially lost everything, I couldn’t carry on my degree (which i only had one year full time learning left) and I felt at the time I would never get me back again… 

As soon as I was able, I picked up my kids’ clubs, I sorted out my finances, I cared for my children and all the while, in any spare time I had, I was weaving. I didn’t realise at the time, but this was my therapy time.  

I’ll be honest, I was angry, hurt, my poor body was battered and I was tired, all the time. But I just kept weaving, even when it was hard and frustrating! I’d make things I didn’t like; wasn’t happy with, but then I’d just want to do more.  I’d make plant supports; animal sculptures, random sculptures that weren’t anything, just the process of weaving seemed to be enough.  For a while we lost our living room to my ever-growing collection.  

And then I found a book by Mary Butcher on basket making “Willow Work” well it would be rude not to at least have a go…Oh what a wonderful rabbit hole I had found! 

During this time, I trained as a Forest School leader and as I got more confident in my weaving skills, I began to be asked by local organisations to teach the skills I had developed.  These new skills were around Permaculture; growing food, low level traditional crafts, Forest Schooling and weaving.  I used to teach people with severe mental health issues, young carers, long term unemployed, families, schools and councils across Lancashire. Through these links I was asked by the Worker’s Education Association to teach vocational environmental courses for them, with no teaching qualifications they paid for me to get my teaching adults certificate. This taught me how to teach and structure classes, as well as important health and safety and other administration around teaching. 

I’d always intended to go back to my degree and end up working for some environmental NGO, or big organization to help “save the planet” but without realising it, I was already laying the groundwork to become a full-time weaver and teacher. 

As my children got older, and I was able to take on more work, I found myself self-employed working for lots of organisations and loving it. In my Forest School work, especially over the summer months, I’d get to bring my own children too.  Everything I was doing; being outside in natural environments, using hands and tools, playing games, having time to be reflective in Nature, I saw a genuine need in people to feel connected to their local, natural environments. 

My first and second shop

I think I had naturally come to a point in my working life also where I wanted to get really good at something and not just be a Jack of all trades (there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a Jack!) Wanting to travel less and spend more time with my children, I took the plunge in 2012 and rented a small shop in my hometown of Todmorden, West Yorkshire. This would be my base to start teaching from my own venue and somewhere to store my ever-increasing kit. 

I’d already joined the Basket Makers Association and my basket making skills were developing all the time with lots of practice and being able to access small funding and tuition by some of the best weavers from across Europe.  

I quickly outgrew this space, rented a larger premises, started to focus most of my work on weaving with Willow, teaching the craft, commissions, sculpture and baskets for sale. For me Willow was ticking all my boxes. I loved working with it, it’s so meditative and calming, I found as I got better, I was also becoming a calmer better person. In my work life I had found something that resonated so much with people and I was able to help and encourage so many people and organizations to grow it too! One of our most important trees Willow has so many benefits which I’m not going to list them all here. Above all, as with me, it made people happy, just to weave with it. 

By 2019, I had a successful business, Creative with Nature Ltd, I’d outgrown my space again and was looking for a larger, more permanent home for my business. Then in 2020 disaster struck again and my workshop flooded badly, I lost most of my stock, willow and lots of tools and other things associated with the business. I was renting where I lived and where I worked and for a short while I thought I might lose it all. But my hard work was paying off, I’d developed a good reputation over the years and a large, neglected Georgian building in the centre of town, that had been for sale for a long time became an option for me to buy. You might remember this was also the year of the global pandemic and literally the day before the first lockdown a physical survey of my prospective new building was completed. If this hadn’t happened just when it did, the building would have been lost to me forever and realistically not being able to work for so long due to the flooding and then the pandemic I would have lost my business. 

I secured the building and in between lockdowns me and my fast growing, soon to be adult children moved into our 5 storey Georgian building. 

We’ve been here 4 years now and I love it here. It’s been a great base for Creative with Nature and for the last part of my children’s growing up. I now welcome students from across the UK and occasionally internationally too. It’s also opened up opportunities for me to teach with some fantastic organisations and to do some international teaching myself.  

In 2023 I taught over 1000 people to weave and about a third of my students are returning students. I have always kept my classes small and I don’t try to cram too much into a session. Weaving with Willow is slow work and that’s just the way it is. To get good results on a project, whether that’s a sculpture or basket takes time, students who learn with me get the best possible results they can because I give them that space.  

I’m working with some big organisations to increase the amount of Willow grown in the North West too. I’ve been genuinely lucky to have found something I love doing and being able to make that into a successful business. To be able to show my children that hard work and dedication in something you care about is worth the effort and to be a small part in the revival of Willow weaving and basketry in the UK. 

I’ve come to learn over my time weaving that things change, nothing stays the same indefinitely, right now most of my working life revolves around teaching and enabling people and organisations to grow Willow. This makes me incredibly happy. My children are now pretty much adults and as I help them navigate this last part of their time with me I am also looking to the future. I’m looking forward to weaving, just for the sake of it again, of growing my own at some point and taking more time for reflection, more time to potter. 

When I look to the future now I see endless possibilities and I’m so grateful to Willow for taking such good care of me and my offspring, for making all this possible. 

Joe Gregory (Creative with Nature)