Willow Weavers
Traditionally associated with basketry, willow is a sustainable material, grown locally in Britain. So local that second generation willow weaver Eddie Glew cultivates and harvests rods himself, just a stone’s throw from his studio in Staffordshire, England. Once harvested, the buds and bark are stripped from the plant before the rods are stored and soaked, ready for weaving.
Aged just 19, Eddie joined his father – a self-taught basket maker – in his workshop to learn the skills he had honed over many decades. “It was a bit of a makeshift apprenticeship really,” says Eddie, “and I fell in love with it straight away.” His father encouraged him to play with the material and within just a few short months he had learned to make everything from differently shaped, traditional baskets to a sculpture of a gorilla! It is this playfulness that Eddie still relishes today, experimenting with and pushing the boundaries of this natural material.
Eddie went on to further develop his skills with the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST), which encourages excellence in British craftsmanship. Under the tutelage of Sally Goymer, who Eddie affectionately calls “the Queen Bee of the basket making world,” Eddie learned finer work typically associated with French basketry, as opposed to the more agricultural making often seen in Britain. It is this refined style of weaving that Eddie employs on Soane’s first willow design – The Santo Sospir Willow Sofa, which also has roots in France.
“This sofa incorporates lots of traditional techniques that I use in all of my basket making, like the three-rod wale, plait borders, fitching and the lattice effect,” says Eddie, “it’s just on a much bigger scale, more akin to my sculptural work.”
The story begins with the plant itself. Chosen for its sustainable properties and local supply chain, willow is much faster growing than timber and is noteworthy for its carbon sequestration. Eddie explains that the sofa’s production is labour intensive, with a myriad of processes along the way. He has an acre of land which he cultivates and harvests annually. The white willow (or stripped willow) selected for Soane’s Santo Sospir Sofa is prized for its beauty and takes the longest time to prepare.
He coppices the willow before submerging the butts (the thick end of the rod) in shallow troughs of water to fool the plant into thinking it’s still alive, so that it keeps growing. “In May, as the sap starts to rise, there’s a finite time that you can strip the willow. It pulls off like a glove and you’re left with beautiful little signatures, where the new growth or buds would come from.”
The willow must then be fully soaked to make it pliable, with everything judged by touch and sight alone, as a result of years of experience. “Soaking is an art in itself,” says Eddie. Depending on the time of year and the temperature, rods can be left to soak anywhere between one and three hours – “When it’s cold the willow is really tight, so it takes a little bit longer. In the summer, because of the warmer water, it relaxes the fibers and takes a lot less time.”
No two rods of willow are identical, which requires a very thoughtful approach to every stage of making. Weaving is physically demanding, particularly on this scale, with each rod measuring 8 feet in length (the longest these rods can be grown). Eddie works skillfully with the flexible plant material, understanding both its scope and its limitations.
Some rods can be more brittle than others, so Eddie needs to respond to the material for optimum results. Unlike rattan, with each rod having a uniform diameter, willow tapers dramatically from butt to tip, forcing Eddie to pay attention to ensure the willow does exactly what he wants it to do.
“One of the beauties with willow is every single rod is individual. None of them are the same which means none of these sofas are going to be the same. Every single one is a unique piece in itself and they all have their own characteristics.”
