Artisans of Dartmoor - Book - Page 82
“Weaving is like
meditating
but without trying”
Despite having made hundreds of sculptures,
Katherine never gets bored. “My creatures
develop personalities as I make them, so each
one feels different. Customers end up getting
really attached to them and give them names.
Some start thinking of them as pets.”
Along with her creatures, Katherine has
recently started weaving lampshades, modelled
on the birds’ nests she sees in the surrounding
countryside. Wren, rook, blackbird, magpie
and osprey nests are all recreated, in styles
ranging from neat, tiny and round (wrens), to
messy, massive and twiggy (rooks).
To make these, Katherine forages for
twigs and stems during her autumn and
winter woodland walks with Olive, when
trees’ shapely skeletal branches are laid bare.
Her focus is on using materials that birds
themselves use, only adding a dash of poetic
licence: slender and supple clematis stems,
red and green dogwood, contorted hazel
branches, frilly lichen and cushioning moss.
82
The Willow Weaver • Katherine Miles
