Weaving the Willow Wand: Baskets of Lise Bech

Lise Bech is a basket maker who creates beautiful and useful objects from organic and sustainable materials, chiefly from various species of Scottish Willow. Each species has its own texture, pliability, and color which lend character to the work produced. The basket featured in the video below, titled Plantweave, is one of her more traditional designs, made from willows collected by hand from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. Her assertion that working with willow branches is “a cooperation” in which one must never “go past what the willow will do naturally” is a fascinating revelation about working with natural materials in general. Bech invites us to share her reverence for the plants which form her creations. She sees weaving as a meditative act which unites her consciousness with her local landscape. It is amazing to see the piece progress from a rough and unwieldy structure to an organized and stable one. Bravo, Lise!

Video via William Robertson on YouTube.