FEATURED ARTISTS
​OCTOBER 2023
 
CELEBRATING BASKET MAKING
Clare Revera - Rosie Farey - Collette Davies - Clair Murphy

Clare Revera

I have been making traditional and non-traditional Welsh baskets and other willow items inspired by the colours and materials of the landscape around me since 2002. I am passionate about working with natural, sustainable materials found in the local countryside, hazel, willow and birch in particular. I also grow my own materials in my garden, on my field in Pembrokeshire and in local community spaces.
 
I weave these materials into functional, useful baskets, sculptures and items for the home and garden, using age-old traditional techniques and designs but adding my own sense of individuality in terms of the colours and decorative features which I add.
​I am particularly interested in Welsh baskets and regularly make the round Cyntell in a variety of sizes, the lighter weight Welsh shopper, Welsh Tea Things basket and the Gower Cockle Picking Basket. I love the fact that these baskets have been woven and used throughout time in Wales. I have learned the skills and techniques for weaving these baskets from master craftsmen who are dedicated to passing on their skills.
 
I am a Maker’s Guild in Wales selected member and Yeoman Member of the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers and my work is permanently exhibited at Crafts in the Bay. In 2018 I was commissioned to weave the contemporary basket to introduce the Plant Section for the new Gweithdy Craft Gallery at the National Museum of Wales. I have been a Board Member for the Basketmaker’s Association since 2017.
 
I am committed to sharing my own skills with others. I have taught for the UK Basketmaker’s Association, deliver City and Guilds accredited training, and consider high quality teaching an extremely important aspect of my work.
Rosie Farey


​At the age of 8 I made my first rush basket. I collected a bundle of rushes from the field in front of my house and made it up as I went along.

I moved back home to North Wales in 2012 after graduating from the University of the West of England, Bristol with a degree in Drawing and Applied Art. It was then that I rediscovered the little rush basket I had made all those years ago. I was impressed by what my 8 year old self had achieved. 
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With a bit of guidance from my mother Mandy Coates who is also a basket maker, I taught myself how to make rush baskets.
Collette Davies

​Colette is a basketmaker who lives and works in Monmouthshire Wales. She weaves beautiful, traditional, and contemporary baskets, from English rush and other natural materials. She enjoys using a range of techniques including plaiting, twining, coiling, and stitching. 

Colette has a particular interest in using plant materials that she either grows herself or gathers in her local environment. She is inspired by the natural world around her and the details she finds in organic forms. Colette enjoys immersing herself in the changing seasonal rhythms, which is integral to the way she works when gathering and processing plants for her baskets. Exploring the play of colour, lines of stitching and the texture of plant fibres is fascinating to her, and her work often crosses over into what she describes as, textile baskets.
Over the past few years Colette has become more involved in rush basketry, spending time with other Basketmakers Association members in June, cutting rush from a river in Somerset.

Colette is a member of The Basketmakers Association, The Heritage Crafts Association and The Makers Guild Wales.
Clair Murphy

Clair is a resident artist at the Made in the Marches Gallery and is the curator for this October exhibition.

Clair has been basketmaking for over 15 years and now works from a studio in Presteigne weaving English rush and other natural materials.

She cuts and dries rush every summer and enjoys seeing the cycle turn from river to final piece.