Ideal Living reinvents the home to showcase specialist makers and people that elevate out everyday experience through meaningful design and craftsmanship.

Join master basket weaver Anna Liebmann for two fun and sociable days of beginners willow basketry and create a beautiful round frame basket followed by other willow projects of your choice. The basket form we will work with is versatile and infinitely adaptable, letting you dictate your own outcomes and create your own personal basket design.

Talented makers in wood from around the country will converge on the pretty Borders town to display and sell their wares. The Woodmarket makes its annual return this year in October.

Nature and history pass through Anna’s hands as she weaves using willow she grows, cuts, sorts and prepares herself. She also uses willow that was grown elsewhere in Scotland organically or conventionally in Somerset. The baskets are things of beauty; sturdy and precise.

Learn how to make creatively but with order and success a lampshade with willow, with the option of working on a former or scalloming onto a hoop or lampshade ring.

Over 2 days we will cover all the skills needed, starting with selecting your willow hoops to creating an armature, adding ribs and controlling the shape, grading the willow as you meditatively weave this traditional Scottish basket.

Come and meet Anna Liebmann (weaver) and Michelle Lowe (potter) as part of Art Walk Porty, discover and purchase beautiful handcrafted items from both renowned makers. Demonstrations, exhibition, coffee and homebaking…

On this course you will learn the techniques needed to make a medium-sized oval willow trug basket that will be ideal for foraging and gathering. You will be able to choose between adding one central handle or 2 side handles to suit its purpose.

Join master basket weaver Anna Liebmann for three fun and sociable days of Willow Basketry Summer School and create a selection of willow masterpieces. With Annas expert help we will learn all the fundamental techniques of basketmaking, completing a traditional willow shopping basket and then a selection of other small projects over the course. Your completed shopping basket will be based on an extremely time served traditional design, and given due care should be outlasting you to hand down the generations! There will be lots of opportunity to experiment with colour in the sides of the baskets, using different varieties of willows grown for their varied bark colours. Once we’ve completed our shopping baskets we’ll move on to learn a few of Anna’s smaller projects such as platters, woven stars, or nut baskets.

On this course you will learn the techniques needed to make a medium-sized round willow basket that will be suitable for several uses, such as a small shopping, picnic, or foraging basket. You will be able to choose between adding one central handle or incorporating 2 side handles to suit its purpose.

Creating and managing basketry willow beds at Lauriston Farm

Join master basket weaver Anna Liebmann for two fun and sociable days weaving foraged frame baskets and create a round or oval willow masterpiece. You can choose to add a handle to create a fabulous foraging basket, or go without to create a beautiful fruit basket for your home. This basketry technique is a vernacular style that was traditionally used to build Scottish fishing baskets, a great heritage skill that we are proud to continue.

Join master basket weaver Anna Liebmann for two fun and sociable days weaving foraged frame baskets and create a round or oval willow masterpiece. You can choose to add a handle to create a fabulous foraging basket, or go without to create a beautiful fruit basket for your home. This basketry technique is a vernacular style that was traditionally used to build Scottish fishing baskets, a great heritage skill that we are proud to continue.

Come and meet Anna Liebmann (weaver) and Michelle Lowe (potter) as part of Art Walk Porty, discover and purchase beautiful handcrafted items from both renowned makers. Demonstrations, exhibition, coffee and homebaking…

Come and meet Anna Liebmann (weaver) and Michelle Lowe (potter) as part of Art Walk Porty, discover and purchase beautiful handcrafted items from both renowned makers. Demonstrations, exhibition, coffee and homebaking…

Folk at Heart is an invitation to enter a world of discovery and creativity. The Scottish Gallery has curated an uplifting, theatrical and imaginative exhibition combining fine, popular and applied artists to sit alongside self-taught and anonymous folk artists, mixing contemporary and historical timelines. Folk at Heart embraces the artist, the amateur, naïve and unpretentious – each artist leads the narrative from social history, decorative and useful, to the subversive and grotesque. There is painting, printmaking, collage, ceramics, jewellery, basket weaving, quilting and embroidery alongside many curious and rare vintage finds. Folk at Heart explores the iconography of personal memory, pop-culture, myths and folk tales, practical design and the continuation of local traditions in all forms... Join in the spirit of Folk at Heart this September.

You can see artworks by Anna Liebmann at Folk at Heart on their artist’s page here.

Join master basket weaver Anna Liebmann for a fun and sociable basket weaving course and create a beautiful and useful Hen Basket. Over two consecutive Fridays we’ll cover all the skills needed, starting with selecting your willow hoops to create an armature, adding ribs and controlling the shape, grading the willow as you meditatively weave this traditional Scottish basket form with a fascinating back story.

Three day master class in the heritage craft techniques of basketmaking, making a traditional Kentish Kibsey. Used for harvesting plums, cherries, apples and other top fruits depending on size.

An exhibition showcasing the value of willow weaving and growing to our world; to sustainability, continuity of our heritage and contemporary artistic expression. Curated by Lois Walpole.

Sixteen willow basketmakers, artists and sculptors, all of whom are full-time UK professional makers, explore the idea of nourishment and what it means to the maker today.