“It’s fantastic” is the response you get when you ask Galloway-based basketmaker and willow weaver Lizzie Farey how she feels about winning the BBC Homes & Antiques magazine’s inaugural ‘Talent Around Britain’ £5,000 bursary award. 

And it must seem almost unbelievable that from mid October her sculptural willow work will be in the windows of John Lewis stores in Edinburgh, Kent and London’s Oxford Street, one of the busiest shopping centres in the UK.  

Lizzie, along with silversmith and jeweller Eileen Gatt , were two Scottish makers included in a group of 12 talented craftspeople from across the UK who were selected in collaboration with the Crafts Council to be profiled in the magazine over the past year. 

The award winner was chosen by a panel of industry experts along with magazine readers, who voted for their favourite maker, and they were unanimous in crowning Lizzie the winner. 

Caroline Wheater, deputy editor of BBC Homes & Antiques, said “Lizzie’s work is in a class of its own.  She has taken a traditional craft and brought her own fresh ideas to it creating not just baskets, but contemporary bowls, vases and sculptures from willow.  Her weaving technique, honed over many years, is superb, allowing her to create high-quality and long-lasting pieces.  She grows all her own willow and nurtures it from bud to finished product.  Lizzie really loves willow and it shows – she’s making some of the finest designs available in Britain today.”

Part of Lizzie’s delight comes not just from winning the award, which also includes a double page feature in the November issue of BBC Homes & Antiques magazine, but from the recognition and profile her win gives to basketmaking and sculptural willow weaving.  She explains that although there are thousands of people doing basketmaking across the UK the discipline does not receive the same recognition as other crafts.  As she wryly points out “There is no Jerwood Prize for basketry.”

She will receive her award at Chelsea Crafts Fair where she will be selling her work from 19 to 24 October. This is the first time she has exhibited, and she has created new pieces especially for it.  “I have distilled my work to a purer form” she explains.  “It is quite tight and refined and I have treated the wood with wax and things so you can see the natural colours.”  She is looking forward to introducing more people to the beauty of Scottish willow, which she grows, harvests and stores herself.

Lizzie received a Professional Development Award from the Scottish Arts Council to assist with the costs of going to Chelsea Crafts Fair and she was recently awarded a Dumfries and Galloway Council Arts and Crafts Marketing Grant.

Her work is currently on show in the Crafts Council Shop at the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as other galleries across the UK, and prices range from £38 for a platter made from Galloway willow to £1200 for a 2 metre diameter living willow sphere. 

Her work can also be bought through her website at www.lizziefarey.co.uk which has a gallery of her work and an archive of fascinating articles. 

Find out more about basketmaking in Scotland at www.scottishbasketmakerscircle.org

Back to features