Building the Willow Craft Community: Skills Sessions in May

In May we held basketry skills sessions on Mansel Green next to the newly planted willow bed which in November we will harvest. In the mean time we have bought materials from a commercial grower in Somerset to supply the project.

The plan is to introduce and teach willow weaving skills to any person or group who is interested in learning and may have an interest in helping to harvest and teach others. I have found the best way to develop your own skills is to pass them on.

Nicole and Shan attended 3 sessions, Nicole has built up her skills in a number of classes and has decided basketry is something she enjoys and is good at but needs the discipline of a class to focus on practice time.

Working in a group is an ideal way to do this, as others motivate and help you overcome your own inner tyrant who is over critical. Others seem to love our work better than our selves, because we see all the faults and they see all the beauty!

Nicole completed a Finnish bilberry basket, a small berry picker traditionally made by nuns to collect bilberries and the like. Small, built by using scalloms around a hoop, the base uses side stakes woven backwards and forwards to form the base. It is a perfect forage basket for a child.

Shan is a beginner who was eager to learn and prepared to listen intently which always helps when learning new skills. She decided to make a round cauldron shaped shopper. An interesting first project which included learning pairing, waling, French randing, slewing and a 4 behind 1 rod border. As well as how to fit and wrap a handle bow.

Students often wonder why they are exhausted after a day’s basketry, the brain when learning new things has to build new neural pathways and this takes energy. A process which is also incredibly good for your health and wellbeing.

On the second Friday we were  visited by the Swansea Women’s group and their children who brought their own film crew (two capable ladies) to film Saba, who organises the group. She is in the running for a reward from Chwarae Teg for all her hard work organising events. Fingers crossed for Saba.

The women made Catalan platters, spiral bird feeders, and a garden trug. We hope to invite them back again as they enjoyed themselves. The children were very well behaved and interested in just being on the green. One of the little philosophers wrote a message on the blackboard we should all heed.

The following Friday we invited the Murton Youth group to attend. Andrew Walker brought six children to have a talk about the project and to do something practical. In less than two hours we had an interactive talk about climate change, using the Schlesinger graph, and relating climate changing timescales to the age of an Oak tree (it can live for over 500 years if it is lucky). We showed them a coppiced Hazel and a pollarded Willow, an efficient form of management which prolongs the life of the tree and produces harvestable materials and finally the willow bed.

Each form of management produces local materials in the short term: annually coppiced basketry Willow, medium term: coppiced Hazel every 7 years and the long term: pollarded Hornbeam, every 10-20 years.

The children had time to make a small willow item for the garden; their more ambitious ideas would have to wait for another visit. It ended with sharing a home-made sponge which was lovely. We hope to welcome them back again in the coming weeks and months.

We will be organising another skills session on Saturday June 29th. If you are part of a community group or individual interested in an introductory skills session please get in touch.

We are all Volunteers, working as a volunteer: our motivations

WORKING AS A VOLUNTEER MEANS YOU ARE NOT WORKING FOR A WAGE, BUT WHAT ARE YOU WORKING FOR?

Working as a volunteer means you are not working for a wage, but what are you working for?

The Mansel Green plan relies on people volunteering their time and energy to implement appropriate local action on climate change. A true demonstration of generosity, but why do it?

On the regular Wednesdays and Saturdays we have run for the last month  our volunteers have included asylum seekers, ;local residents some regular, some a one off and charity trustees.

What are our day to day motivations? Here is an attempt to summarise the main drivers:

socialising, making friends, teamwork

This is the most obvious and common motivator to attend, getting things done in a group and sharing experience is enjoyable and addictive. We are social animals and it is natural to work in groups. We can get a greater work load done and that feels good, a collective good. It motivates hard physical work. Working with and talking with the asylum seekers opened my eyes to how dangerous the world is and how important it is to listen to other people’s personal accounts and experience. I certainly know more about the political situation of Kurdistan and Sudan. Working with local village resident Nick gives me a perspective of village life over decades and helps me understand Bishopston better. We can also enjoy working with like minded people which reduces our isolation by demonstrating how much we need each other.

experience, training, CV building activity

Learning new things can be exciting and challenging. Boredom is often characterised by too little stress, learning new things stretches and works your mind and provides healthy levels of stress. Especially when you learn skills and share knowledge while not even realising it. Building experience increases our confidence and transferable skills we use elsewhere, including the work place.

shared purpose bigger than our selves.

As a motivator this cannot be under estimated. When it works it contributes to our personal wellbeing and wellbeing of wider community and the natural world. It is bigger than our selves, a letting go of exclusive personally driven behaviour. This is summarised by a young volunteer Rhian who said ‘I felt it was better to do some work on a collective project rather than a private garden’. We feel good about ourselves.

Understanding why we do something is paramount to this process. Tom Crompton in his work on communicating climate change and engaging people to take action. It illustrates that we should assume the majority of people wish to do something positive about the environment but how that is translated in our practical actions is at times complex and multifaceted. The key is to keep it simple, do the deadly obvious and be consistent without being obsessed with what others think of you.

I am reminded by the beautiful film ‘The Man who planted trees’. A fable where a single man plants trees every day to re-populate a windswept valley. Over decades of consistent hard work he creates a diverse home for nature which includes the happiness of the humans. At the beginning of his journey locals either ignore him or think he is an eccentric. The story is told by one young man who helps him for a short while and returns many years later. The man had the faith of his convictions even though he had to work most of the time on his own.

All this can be summed up as lessons on interconnection

A delicate process of engagement, combating doubt, apathy and despair

Dealing with these internal emotions and beliefs are a very real barrier for each of us to act. At different times we all experience these feelings; it is the ability to overcome them which makes the difference to all beings.