It’s a passion that became a profession, then transmission. Katherine Lantin, in her small veranda workshop in Marans, encourages the art of working with one's hands, patiently weaving wicker strands to create beautiful everyday pieces. Zoom in on this ancestral and little-known art of a “very wise” craftsman.
No doubt we suspect, basketry is a work full of rigor and patience; but also highly dependent on the seasons and the weather.
Where exactly does wicker come from, do you know? It actually comes from certain willows (with a basket quality) which grow in spring and are pruned the following winter. The harvest is done from November to February, when the sap circulates very little in the plants. There is no longer any risk of injuring the trees. Katherine makes a point of working with local species: wicker of course, but also wild dogwood (with redder colors) or clematis (found in the form of lianas in hedges). The latter are very soft and elastic, which allows you to create beautiful braids.
This year, the harvest is complicated by the omnipresent water in the fields and woods. Certain species will only be accessible by boat!
But the harvest is only the first part of the job. For clematis for example, Katherine peels the branches one by one, after boiling them for 1h30. A meticulous activity to obtain a very beautiful material.
During the year, she sometimes has to re-moisten the strands if they have dried out too much, for almost a week. A job which therefore requires patience, but allows you to weave and then make a number of items: baskets, jars, baskets, nest boxes, feeders, candle holders, decorations...
Katherine forged this attraction to basketry through wonderful encounters with passionate basket weavers. It’s the “gesture” that she likes and that she wants to pass on in turn. Transmission is essential for her and she therefore offers discovery workshops for 6-10 year olds (notably at Caale in Marans). She also plans to launch parent-child workshops, as well as some adult slots.
With her great gentleness, Katherine accompanies and guides young and old in the actions to be carried out. Participants learn patience, rigor... to in turn create butterflies or wicker fish.
These workshops also make it possible to transmit messages that are dear to him about respect for nature.
You can discover his articles in exhibition at the Caale until the end of April.
