Just before Christmas 15 Friends and guests gathered at the Scout Hall in Englefield Green for an enjoyable few hours of crafting.
On arrival we warmed the hall only to discover when Mary arrived that we needed to keep the temperature cool to prevent the ‘wetted’ willow from drying out.
The concept of a willow star sounds easy, five pieces of sturdy willow about 30cm long, five elastic bands, some thinner lengths of flexible willow for binding and decoration. In practice it was more difficult.
After a demonstration from Mary, a Friend of The Savill Garden, we all started by joining four of the five lengths of willow together with the elastic bands to form a ‘W.’ Following this, thin willow was fashioned into a neat circle for hanging.
At least that was the expectation; however, making a short length of wet willow into a neat circle produced 15 variations from small to large, tight to loose; all very individual. The next part was even trickier joining the fifth piece to the ‘W’ to form a star with each stick weaved over and under the next, not forgetting to add the ring to the star. Eventually we all managed to achieve this and definitely needed reviving with coffee and mince pies.
The base star with hanger.
Our final willow step was to weave thin, wet willow at each of the star points to bind them together and hide the elastic bands which will eventually perish. While this sounds easy, in reality the length of the willow kept getting in the way of our neighbours.
The stars were decorated in a variety of ways, weaving ribbon, hanging decorations, or adding lights to name a few. The result was 15 proud owners of 15 individual willow stars.
We all left with a new Christmas decoration. Our thanks to Mary for her time and patience and for an enjoyable and productive morning.
