Wild Basketry

Making baskets and natural cordage from foraged plants

Ruby Taylor

• Publisher: Herbert Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789942460
• Edition: 1

A makers' guide to sourcing and harvesting foraged plants to make natural cordage and baskets.

Making with our hands is a fundamental human activity; connection with the natural world and the feeling of belonging to place are basic human needs. A counterbalance to our digitalised lives is the wish to connect with the simple joy and satisfaction of creating beautiful and useful objects, tapping into ancestral skills and wisdom and taking care of our world by reducing our ecological impact. Wild Basketry brings all this together in a rich combination of reflection and practical guide.

Beautiful photographs take you through a seasonal year of seven basketry and cordage projects, suitable for beginners as well as for those wishing to expand their basketmaking skills. Ruby Taylor guides you through each step following a range of techniques, with suggestions for further exploration, to give you a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of the craft.

Guidance on the principles of harvesting and processing plant fibres, and contextual information about the evolution of basketry, are covered throughout the book, along with spotlights on several inspiring international artists.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. Why ‘Wild’? Why Basketry?
• 2. Origins: Animal-made Structures
• 3. Origins: Human Archaeology of Baskets and Cordage
• 4. Basketmaking Traditions
• 5. Harvesting Materials
• 6. Projects
• Foraging Wild Plants: The Law
• Bibliography
• Resources, Photo Credits and Permissions
• Acknowledgements