It dream baskets feels as though tetra pak weaving has

 Plaiting workshop at the Taller Cestaria, Lugo 2009 It is al most two years since I last taught at the T al ler Cestaria run by CENTRAD in Lugo , G al icia .  It was, as usu al , great fun, a recycling workshop (you can see pictures and read about it here ) with very creative students. But, towards the end of the week the atmosphere dream baskets began to change as rumours had begun circulating dream baskets that the administration of the T al ler was to be taken out of the hands of Carlos Font al es , who, in the opinion of anyone who had ever had the pleasure of teaching or learning there was the reason why it al l ran as well as it did.
Although it was al ways hard work and exhausting for me to teach there (due to my very poor Spanish) the students al ways engaged fully with an enormous enthusiasm to learn, dream baskets experiment and share these experiences in each others company. All of which contributed to the speci al atmosphere that existed there. In retrospect we know that the changes that subsequently came about were really only about the financi al situation in Spain . But, at the time, many of us who knew how good the place was, sought to prevent them happening by protesting vociferously and publicly, none of which had any effect, dream baskets of course! CENTRAD runs very few basket making courses now and those that take place lack the breadth and depth of topics of those that Carlos organised.
Jose Manuel with part woven basket! Flor contacted dream baskets me because she wanted me to see some pictures of work done by a friend of hers whom she had subsequently taught to plait tetra pak baskets. Jose Manuel now seems to fill al l his spare moments with cutting and weaving tetra paks into bags and baskets of al l kinds, inventing new forms and apparently getting a huge amount of pleasure and satisfaction from doing so. A large pull- al ong basket on castors, to carry towels from the family run centre for al ternative therapies dream baskets to the laundry, is my particular favourite. It is both function al and attractive and I don’t doubt that if Jose Manuel continues to enjoy making baskets with tetra paks more gems will appear. Pull along laundry basket dream baskets by Jose Manuel
It dream baskets feels as though tetra pak weaving has  al ways been part of my life but, in fact, I first used juice cartons to make baskets with in 1991. I had not seen them used by anyone else in the same way but, as the internet was still a dream for most of us at that time, it was of course  al ways possible that someone somewhere else in the world had  al so spotted their potenti al . My use of them was, however, part of a logic al  progression in my work because I had started dream baskets to look for materi al s that were  al ready coloured so that I could move away from using dye and paint. The first baskets dream baskets I made with tetra paks were assembled rather than woven, each whole carton being st itched to the next to create dream baskets sheet materi

al  for bowls and laundry baskets.
Apple juice carton laundry basket 1995 In 1991,  London , where I lived, was still a back-water as far as recycling went. A recently published article about my work suggested that I had raided my ‘recycling dream baskets box’ for materi al s at that time; nothing could be further from the truth. We certainly did not have recycling boxes then and even after they were fin al ly introduced it was still some time before tetra paks could be recycled. The layers of al uminium, paper, printing inks and plastic used to make the cartons were, and still are, a ch al lenge for industri al recycling requiring considerable energy to separate the various dream baskets elements. The cartons came into my house full of juice and left as baskets. If I had been able to put them into a ‘recycling box’ it is entirely dream baskets possible that I would never have used them. I think it was the fact that they were being thrown away in al most mint condition that both upset me and inspired me to try and make things with them.
Handbag 1997 It wasn’t until 1995 that I discovered a way to cut the cartons that gave me long strips to to plait with. It seemed a perfect match of materi al and technique, the tetra pak being flexible, strong and relatively waterproof it al so had, for me, the added bonus of colour. Since then many baskets and other objects made with milk and juice cartons have come and gone through my hands. Through classes and books I have al so taught many other people how to do the same yet, I rarely hear what effect this has on other people lives. As a teacher one accepts that the knowledge passed on to others becomes theirs to do what they like with, without any expectation of further acknowledgement or credit.  Nevertheless, it is al ways a delight to hear of the ways in which this knowledge has been passed into another pair of hands, and how it has been adapted, or added to, by them. Even if the T al ler is no longer the place it was, it is good to know that the knowledge imparted there lives