The day we got withy it!

This is something we had never intended to do but the art coordinator at Workbase, Ruth, brought in a load of willow withies from wasteland she new. If you cut them near the base they grow again and will remain supple stood in water for a good while. Also if you stick them in the ground fairly quickly they will start to grow new plants.

We started of bending and fastening the withies into heart shapes wrapping string and strips of cloth round them. When you twist two together they pretty much stay put. Some of us thought we had a selection of carpet beaters. We also added tissue paper to fill in gaps. If you paint over the tissue with PVA it goes taught across an area when it dries.

After getting more confident some of us became a little more sculpture inclined and the projects began to get a little large and intricate!