Willow weaving was my first attempt at building a form. Mum, Fi and I attended a day workshop run by local artist Juliette Hamilton at Arley Hall. This gave me an insight in how to build the underlying structure when I later came to experiment with wire shapes. 

The success and fate of the resulting hares varied! Fi’s was a perch for her love birds and the branches stripped by their beaks. Mums … well although very talented in other ways, painting, gardening, flower arranging etc, I don’t think willow weaving was her strong point! Mine sat in the garden until the weather took its toll. 

Wire came into the equation a little later. I loved the fairies sculpted by “Fantasy  Wire”. Bought a DIY kit for Mother’s Day, I made my first fairy followed by a second shortly after. 

I liked the flexibility wire gave me to shape the forms and the finer detail that could be put into them.  Wire seemed to be a good medium for me to start with.  Chicken Wire was readily available and seemed an obvious choice.