Hi, I am Hanna,

I made my very first basket in 2002, with Patsy Cahill, basket maker in Mullinahone, Tipperary, Ireland. I was incredibly inspired by his hands moving rythmically and steadily to make sturdy baskets from willow grown in his garden. Making a basket felt like I connected to ancient knowledge I recocnised or remembered.

I loved that I could grow my own materials and make the work with my own hands and only a few simple tools.

Not long after I moved from Belgium to Ireland permanently with my husband Jef and small son. We bought some land and a small run down cottage and worked at making a home and garden for our family. We had two more children, grew an extensive vegetable garden and willow plot.

I practiced basket making any spare moment I had, using our own willow. As we grew more willow, I could make more baskets. And slowly, I started making for friends, markets and shops.

When I was asked to teach I also found I loved sharing my craft. I now teach extensively and have built out an entire online program.

My work has evolved so much over the many years. I started out honing my skills by making functional baskets. But very soon I realised that deep inside I was also an artist dying to express herself through the natural world.

Now I make both functional work, rooted in history and land, and I make sculptural work as a creative expression of what I feel the natural world wants to express through me.

My sculptural forms are organic shapes that twist and turn and flow guided by the willow. To me they are a representation of feelings expressed through a body. You know how someones posture can say so much about how they are feeling? Or a simple facial expression? My sculptures show tension, release and movement as if held in a body. My body, the body of nature, your body. What flows through you also flows through me and is held and changed by movement. Emotions moving by making by hand in small or big gestures. 

My gratitude goes to my teachers

First was Patsy Cahill. He was the person that passed the spark for willow onto me.

Once Patry showed me the basics I learned more techniques from the book ‘The complete book of basketry techniques’ by Sally Goymer and Sue Gabriel. That book was my constant companion for many years as I slowly taught myself fluency and form.

My second in-person teacher was Joe Hogan. Joe, basket maker in Connemara, Galway, has been an inspiration from the start. He has shown me that making a living from your craft is possible as well as creatively fulfilling. I read his book ‘Basketmaking in Ireland’ when it first came out in 2003 front to cover, backwards and inside out. His dedication to the craft, the way he shares his knowledge freely and his life’s work with willow is a never ending source of inspiration.

Since then I have had the privilege to learn square work and frame bases from Eddie Glew in England. An amazingly skilled and knowledgeable maker.

I also learned from Jenny Crisp (England) and frame baskets from Anne Mette Hjornholm(Denmark).

And my constant teacher has been willow itself, through many hours of practice and repetition.

I want to honour all the teachers who have come before me and on who’s shoulders we all stand. Without their endless hours of practice and dedication and honing of skills and fluency, the craft of basket making would not be alive today.

Would you like to learn how to make a basket? 

Start here School of willow basketry

Would you like to see more of my work? 

Check out my Shop