Elizabeth makes her mixed media sculptural basket bags entirely by hand, using plant materials sourced from her local environment. The activity of harvesting and processing materials is an important element of her practice, bringing her into close relationship with the natural world and its cycles of growth and decay. For her, this is an essential remembering of our capacity as humans to collaborate beneficially with nature.

Her work brings the quiet language of plants into the realm of human objects, championing the often slow and humble pace of plants and basketry in the midst of a fast-paced, digital and mechanised world. Her work plays with the tension that can exist between beauty and utility, constructing pieces that may be reliably used as baskets while also having a striking decorative potential.

Elizabeth’s basket forms are rooted in the landscape around her. While she tends to use traditional weaving techniques, the organic shapes of Elizabeth’s baskets are unusual thanks to a mould making process that she has innovated to enable closed, rounded forms to be woven from soft materials. This process involves crafting a hollow mould from wax, weaving and assembling the basket over this, and then breaking it to remove it when the piece is complete. She also loves combining materials, and the opportunities for design that emerge at intersections where materials meet.

Elizabeth lives in South Devon, in the folds of a small river valley and within sight of the high hills and rocky tors of Dartmoor. Her home is a cooperatively run travellers site that is part of the Radical Routes network. Rushes, reeds, grasses, leaves and shrubs for weaving are plentiful in her local environment. Elizabeth holds a first class BSc (Hons) in Herbal Medicine, and has a background in drawing and ceramic sculpture.

Awards:

Green Maker Award 2023 - Awarded by the Green Maker Initiative as part of the ‘Making It’ Exhibition at MAKE Southwest.

Winner - Worshipful Company of Basketmakers ‘Basketry of the Year Competition 2022 - Contemporary Category’