A visit to St Fagans: Basketry woven into Welsh country life

Last week I had the opportunity to visit St Fagans Museum of Welsh rural country life with my friend Julie, who had encouraged me to go and see the museum and its collections.

I had arranged in advance to see some of the collection that isn’t normally on display, as well as spending time looking through the objects and information in the museum itself. It was such a fascinating visit, particularly because I was able to see several forms of basketry and fibre work that I had never seen in this level of detail before.

Behind the scenes in the collection

The collection room was temperature controlled and filled with objects connected to Welsh life and making.

One of the first things we saw was a beautiful collection of large harps. Nearby was a collection of coracle boats, ranging from older and much more fragile examples with frames and leather coverings through to more recent versions made using fibreglass.

But, naturally, it was the woven pieces that really caught my attention.

There was a wonderful group of chairs made using a technique very similar to coiling. They had wooden frames, with thick sections of straw stitched around the frame using bramble fibre.

The chairs dated from the 1950s and varied considerably in condition, but being able to look at their construction closely was fascinating. The technique was immediately recognisable as something a basket maker would understand, only here it had been used to create furniture.

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Discovering Welsh lip work baskets

Alongside the chairs were coiled baskets known as lip work baskets.

I have seen photographs of these before, and people have sent me examples from Wales, but this was the first time I had really been able to examine them in such detail.

They are quite different from much of the finer coiling we often do today. The bundles are thick and chunky, which means the basket grows relatively quickly as it is made.

Seeing the baskets beside the chairs also made the relationship between the techniques much clearer. The same fundamental idea could be adapted from a relatively small vessel to a substantial piece of furniture.

It is one of the things I enjoy so much about looking at older basketry. The techniques are familiar, but the materials, scale and purpose can be completely different.

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Weaving in the fabric of the building

Basketry techniques weren't limited to baskets and furniture either.

There was also an example of a thatched roof where you could see the structure from underneath. From inside, the ceiling almost appears woven, while above it sits the thatched exterior of the roof.

It was another reminder that working with plant fibres and interlacing materials was simply part of everyday construction and practical life. These techniques weren't necessarily decorative. They were ways of making the things people needed around them.

Fish traps and another side of basketry

There were also numerous fish traps in the collection.

Some were relatively small and others were enormous. Looking at them, you can immediately see the basketry involved: long sticks or fibres brought together and woven into forms designed to guide and trap fish.

One particularly large example had an enormous opening. Standing beside it really gave me a sense of its scale.

What interested me most, though, was the connection with basketry traditions in other parts of the world.

Fish traps have been made by cultures across the globe, often using remarkably similar processes. The makers use what grows locally, but the fundamental problem is the same: how do you take flexible natural materials and create a strong, useful structure?

The technique may involve sticks, reeds, vines, grasses or other plant fibres depending on where you are, but the underlying making knowledge is often surprisingly familiar.

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Basketry as part of everyday life

That was probably my biggest impression from the visit.

When we think about basketry today, we can easily think about it primarily as a creative practice. But collections like this remind us how deeply these techniques were woven into everyday life.

People made vessels for gathering and storing. They made traps for fishing. They created furniture. They incorporated woven structures into buildings.

The materials changed according to what was available locally, but the need to gather, carry, store, catch and build was universal.

Back in the public museum displays, there was even more information about the lip work baskets, including photographs showing how they were made and what they were used for. Seeing the actual baskets first and then seeing them placed back into the context of people's lives made the experience particularly interesting.

It is one of the things I continue to find so compelling about basketry.

Wherever you travel, you find people working with the fibres available around them. The plants may be different and the finished objects may have developed their own distinctive forms, but so many of the underlying techniques and practical ideas connect us.

And sometimes, standing in a museum collection looking at a Welsh basket made many decades ago, the technique can feel surprisingly familiar.

➡️ Visit St Fagans Museum of History

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