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isabelmcgarva

Archaeological, traditional and contemporary basketry with the occasional hedgerow find thrown in. Join my newsletter for courses!

Something from the forest... . Cabas twill en éc

Something from the forest...
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Cabas twill en écorces de noyer, osier et lanières de cuir
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Lui aussi il est parmi les pièces @lebistrotduparc jusqu'à la fin septembre pour vous laisser découvrir le Morvan lors de l'été indien si vous en avez la liberté... randonnée et repas du terroir à la maison du parc du Morvan avec une touche de création vannière au rendez-vous!
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#parcdumorvan #vanneriecontemporaine #piècesuniques #isabelmcgarva #créationlocale #modeecologique #faitmain #osier #écorces #cuir

Green & black twill . Cabas en osier brut vert, tr

Green & black twill
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Cabas en osier brut vert, tresses de paille et cordons noirs
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L'été n'est pas fini! Il est à voir au @lebistrotduparc jusqu'à fin septembre!
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(Et toi tu le vois noir et vert ou beige et bleu?)
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#morvan #vannerie #osier #tressesdepaille #cabasecologique #isabelmcgarva #artisanatlocal #Bistrotduparc #cuisineterroir #décolocale #modeecologique #cabastwill

Botanical Animal (EN below) . J'ai la joie de vous

Botanical Animal (EN below)
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J'ai la joie de vous présenter l'exposition du moment au Bistrot du Parc à St Brisson: une collection de mes créations évoquant la faune et l'environnement dans l'enceinte de la Maison de Parc du Morvan, sur l'invitation de la chef Anne-Sophie Gamet.
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Des vanneries animalières en voie d'extinction du passé à la pratique quotidienne de la fabrication de nids de cigogne avec les restes d'osier de mon atelier en passant par mes paniers aux yeux multiples, à pattes, ou à plumes, les mondes de la métamorphose et autres créatures fantastiques qui peuplent mon imaginaire: évocation d'insectes, de poissons, de reptiles ou de mammifères... toutes parlent d'un rapport à l'environnement et à la notion d'être sensible.
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L'exposition est en place jusqu'au 22 septembre et présente aussi une toute petite collection de paniers utilitaires pour humains aussi.
Le bistrot est locavore et une excellente adresse à découvrir lors de votre visite du Morvan!
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EN: I'm honored to be showing a collection of pieces at Bistrot du Parc at La Maison du Parc du Morvan thanks to chef Anne-Sophie Gamet's kind invitation.
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I'm showing a collection of historical and contemporary basketry that tells the story of how we relate to sentient beings and the environment. From extinct historical animal baskets to my contemporary pieces featuring long legs, multiple eyes or feathered pieces through representations of phases of metamorphosis or my new ways of supporting the storks (that are thrown off course and move closer to my workshop as monoculture is ever destroying their habitats on their usual migratory routes by building nests out of my leftovers) all pieces depict a facet of our evolving mentalities towards fellow inhabitants of our environment.
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The exhibition is on until the 22nd of September, there's also a small collection of baskets for humans on site.
Le Bistrot du Parc cuisine is locally sourced and a great place to have lunch when visiting the Morvan natural park visitor centre.
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#maisonduparc #parcnaturelregionaldumorvan #morvan #bistrotduparc #vanneriecontemporaine #willowbasketry #contemporarybasketry

Encore quelques photos de ces journées de créati

Encore quelques photos de ces journées de création au jardin à l'atelier pour l'ultime stage de l'été!
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L'année prochaine on remet ça, vous pouvez m'écrire et vous inscrire à la newsletter pour vous en tenir informé.e.s!
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#basketrycourses #creativebasketry #willowbasketry #osier #willow

Here's to a brilliant week of creative and experim

Here's to a brilliant week of creative and experimental basketry in my garden in the Nièvre! Everyone got to explore techniques and develop creative solutions to their mad projects. It's wonderful to build these baskets and projects together and explore all the possibilities the material will bring us along the way!
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Thank you so much to my wonderful students who for most have been coming for quite a few years now, for the joy of making and weaving together
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🌿💚🌿
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I'm already looking forward to next year
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#vannerie #nièvre #vanneriedosier #stagevannerie #willow #willowbasketry #basketrycoursesfrance #teachingfrommybackgarden #isabelmcgarva #lovemyjob

La semaine dernière nous avons tressé au châtea

La semaine dernière nous avons tressé au château de Dumphlun! Par ce temps mitigé nous avons pu profiter du cadre splendide de la ferme du château avec ses vielles pierres et ses poutres magnifiques. Il y eut stage panier rond pour débutant.e.s et avancé.e.s et un stage luminaires dont les pièces furent incroyables! Vous m'épatez toujours par vos réalisations dès votre premier stage!
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L'année prochaine on remet ça! Les infos et les réservations se prennent en rejoignant ma newsletter sur la page contact de mon site dont le lien est dans ma bio... a bientôt pour tresser ensemble!
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🌿💚🌿
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#stagevannerie #chateaudanslanièvre #Dumphlun #vannerie #osier #panierrond #luminaires #isabelmcgarva

Le Fait Main * Handmade* à la Poterie McGarva (au

Le Fait Main * Handmade* à la Poterie McGarva (au Bourg Rameau (71)) c'est déjà terminé!
On a créé, on a montré, on a tressé et on s'est surtout retrouvés pour des moments très chouettes dans la cour de la poterie!
Merci à toutes et à tous!
Vous pouvez toujours visiter sur rendez-vous en écrivant à @acmcgarva
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#poterie #vannerie #broderie #artisanatcontemporain #handmade #poteriemcgarva #saoneetloire #famillemcgarva

Le vernissage de l'événement "le fait main" *han

Le vernissage de l'événement "le fait main" *handmade* à la poterie McGarva c'est à 17h! (le 16 juillet)
Le groupe de musique sera en place pour l'ambiance, le four à pain chaud pour les grignotages de l'apéro... et nos pièces seront dans l'expo jusqu'au 23! A bientôt pour tresser / trinquer / danser ensemble!
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#artisanatcontemporain #poteriemcgarva #lefaitmain #handmade #textiles #vannerie #poterie

LE FAIT MAIN *HANDMADE* . L'expo d'été à la Po

LE FAIT MAIN *HANDMADE*
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L'expo d'été à la Poterie McGarva ça commence le 16 juillet avec ateliers de vannerie et vernissage!
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C'est ouvert tous les après-midi du 17 au 23 juillet de 14h à 18h30 et vous pourrez y voir les textiles de Clare, les poteries d'Andrew ainsi qu'une toute nouvelle collection de mes paniers!
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Il reste encore une place pour tresser l'écorce de saule le 16, et une ou deux places pour faire des plateaux en osier le 19 (infos en mp).
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A bientôt pour tresser ensemble, ou pour partager une visite ou un verre pour le vernissage!
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#SaôneetLoire #artisanat #handmande #lefaitmain #poteriemcgarva #textiles #poterie #vannerie #expositiondété #Bourgogne

Musée de la préhistoire du Grand Pressigny . I

Musée de la préhistoire du Grand Pressigny
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I happened upon one of the most emblematic of French prehistoric museums... this incredible ruined château with a hypermodern museum built into it to preserve and show one of the oldest collection of flint tools in France. I thought the exhibition was particularly well done and showed a lot of flint knapping demo videos. Of course textiles, basketry and wooden objects were beyond scarce but seeing the level of artistry developed here so long ago it's hard not to imagine the incredible skill they would also have had for easier sourced materials: they must have applied their beautiful blades to something once they were made! In these slides you can see the scale models of prehistoric animals on the museum terrace, the Grand Pressigny blades with their wrapped handles,a fragment of some textile and some spoons and whisks front the Swiss lakes. Examples of modern flint use are the beautiful threshing planks from Spain.
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I loved the fact they included a section about how the local population builds kitsch garden edges out of these flints they nicknamed "pounds of butter" and are several thousand years old... so trivialising! But faced with such multitudes they come across so banal to the locals. (Like antique St Amand stoneware salting pots in my part of the world).
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#museedugrandpressigny #flintcollection #flinttools #flintgardendecor

A poultry transport basket for Le Château à Mott

A poultry transport basket for Le Château à Motte!
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As I was near Angers I got to deliver one of my medieval poultry carriers! It's inspired and extrapolated from later sources that I have also been working on lately (more to come soon I hope!) And is the first of several pieces destined to be used in this municipal reenactment parc. Founded in the 80's @chateau.a.motte is a rare example of 10th century wooden architecture and is run by devoted educators that go between kids medieval birthday parties and researching and acquiring pieces like this to add to their historical collection.
I really enjoyed meeting two of the team of three who bring the place to life for kids, reenactors and historians or archaeologists alike.
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The temptation was huge to put this to a bardcore pink pony club, but I spared you and stayed serious... what would you have chosen as a musical backdrop? Any fitting motet recommendations?

Cabas "twill" in bark or straw braids . I had the

Cabas "twill" in bark or straw braids
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I had the honour of being invited to the first ever summer school of the newly formed basketry training programme at the Maison Familiale et Rurale "Le Verger" @cfp_cfa_mfr_leverger set up by none other than @atelier_brins_de_malice. For this occasion I treated my students to a selection of my best rolls of recently harvested and dried willow bark and a selection of straw braids to make the twill motif on their baskets. It was a real mix of students from pro makers to first time baskets with aspiring future students and people who had just finished the course in between... everyone did brilliantly despite the heat, and I'm happy to say I'll be teaching these ones again!
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It was wonderful to spend time in the beautiful Loire valley with its primroses and beautiful white cut stone buildings along the river that are so elegant and quite exotic and holiday-like to me who comes from a part of the same river some 400km away that's much wilder... Wonderful to be part of this new dynamic in basketry training and to meet master basketmaker @takayukishimizu_bamboo again.
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#stagesvannerie #universitédété #mfrgennes #formationvannerie #cabastwill #isabelmcgarva

The workshop is the ideal place to be during the h

The workshop is the ideal place to be during the heat wave. It's cold all year round so it's pretty rare I get to boast about it!
These pieces are destined to be in the family exhibition at @acmcgarva 's pottery for our event "le fait main" from the 16th to the 23rd of july more about that coming up soon!
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If you were wondering the basket above the lightbulb in the workshop pic is the "Crino" from the Bouxurulles post a couple posts back
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#workingoutside #medievalbuildingsareveryheatresilient #sometimesIstepouttofeelit

The ultimate archaeological basketry destination (

The ultimate archaeological basketry destination (for the later roman period)
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Anyone who has come to one of my archaeology of basketry classes, courses or conferences will have seen this image. A roman noblewoman among the nouveaux-riches of the empire thanks to the wine trade along the mosel river is depicted surrounded by her servants getting her hair done sitting in a fancy wicker chair. This tomb is preserved at the @rheinischeslandesmuseumtrier in Germany and is an incredible example of chair design of the late roman period.
Once there, there was so much more to see! It's always worth going to see these examples for real... believe it or not there is more than one wicker chair in that very exhibition! I'm so glad I made the trip! I have so much to fuel my passion for exploring ancient basketry.
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Trier is an amazing city to explore and has so much archaeology and history: the Neumaguen tombs and so much more in the Rheinischeslandes Museum, Constantine's basilica (so huge and humbling it's dizzying) but also the birthplace of Karl Marx for a change from material culture after a long day at the archaeological museum. Two and a half days wasn't actually enough to do the city justice but there's loads more to visit next time...
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#trier #basketryroadtriptogermany #designinantiquity #wickerchair

Basketspotting in Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy

Basketspotting in Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy
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My first stop off of my post-festival roadtrip was this fabulous museum... a reminder of all that has come before.
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#basketinspiration #lookingtothepast #anonymousgreatmastersofcenturiespast

Bouxurulles 2025 . What a blast! I was off teachin

Bouxurulles 2025
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What a blast! I was off teaching this year as per the festival rules so I got to take a course with the fabulous Andrea Magnolini to learn the "Crino" technique, a rustic basket made to harvest mulberry leaves to feed silkworms for the textile industry in Italy. An XL inverted neolithic weave that was a great brain teaser after nearly 8 years of braiding neolithic baskets in the opposite direction with a different pattern.
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The village lavoir (traditional washouse with watertank supplied by a cool source) was central to the festival during the courses to soak willow as it was super hot, and then for dunking in during the market. The cool building housed Jefke and Jenny's exhibition for the weekend. I was honored to be their translator during the presentation they made on conference night about their reseach on Belgian fine basketry (the last picture shows both of Jefke's masterpieces: a replica of the finework basket from the Belgium historical collection and his miniature collection following Brussels tradition)
Check out @jefkegeysels @mandenmakerijderatelaar and Andrea Magnolini (not on ig but who is also the author of brilliant books about Italian rustic basketry traditions but also kiln and mass stove building)
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The rest mostly stays in Bouxurulles and involoved meeting up with basket friends from all over, dance nights and the usual crazy stuff we get up to in this beautiful village far off the beaten track that lets us build a little basket bubble to forget about the world for a few beautiful sunny days...
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#basketryfestival #Bouxurulles #villageinthevosges #basketrycourses #basketmarket

Oooops I've fallen off the Instagram bandwagon sin

Oooops I've fallen off the Instagram bandwagon since early may! There have been so many roadtrips, basketry fairs, exhibitions, research expeditions and baskets made that I feel I need to do them justice! So in an ig faux-pas I'm just going to post them all quickly to catch up with the summer season that's allready here. (I don't know about you, but I lost all my photo archive a couple of years ago when I dropped a hard disk I had carefully archived my work and have come to value the chronological archive on here)
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A special shout out to friends who have come to my courses and have gone on to get fully trained in the french training programmes... some of you have just got your final exam results... Congratulations! 🥳
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#backonline #summershere #Congratulationstothenewlytrainedfrenchbasketmakers

~ exceptional wicker ~ . I got to help this beaut

~ exceptional wicker ~
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I got to help this beautiful 1912 wicker sidecar back to a usable condition. An incredible encounter that had to stay out on the terrace in the sun as she wouldn't fit through my narrow medieval workshop door! She now will get patina on my work and fitted out by an upholsterer back to her full glory!
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~ rotin exceptionnel ~
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J'ai eu le plaisir de participer à une étape de la restauration de ce sidecar rotin de 1912. Une rencontre avec un bolide emblématique qui a du se passer au soleil en terrasse car il ne passe pas mon étroite porte d'atelier médiéval! Et maintenant à la patine et passage en sellerie pour lui redonner sa gloire d'antan!
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#restauration #wickersidecar #sidecarenrotin #113yearsold #rattansidecar #vintagesidecar #antiquesidecar #antiquebasketry #wovensidecar #1912sidecar #isabelmcgarva

~sous les arbres roses~ . L'exposition à @poterie

~sous les arbres roses~
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L'exposition à @poteriedesampigny est comme un rêve de printemps avec son jardin plein de fleurs chatoyantes et ses salles d'exposition remplies de trésors! Pots Plantes Paniers Pains et Poésie c'est ouvert tous les jours en ce long week-end de pont!
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~ under the bright pink trees ~
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The exhibition at @poteriedesampigny is like a springtime dream with the garden full of flowers and the showrooms full of original pieces... Pots, Plants, Baskets, Breads and Poetry is open over the long week-end!
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#saoneetloire #maranges #exposition #artisanatcontemporain #potsplantespaniers #pain #poésie

(Retouvez toutes les infos dans les posts précédents)

~ hand-basket exhibition ~ . I'm thrilled to have

~ hand-basket exhibition ~
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I'm thrilled to have a few pieces in this year’s temporary exhibition at the Vlechtmuseum in Bornem, near Antwerp in Belgium!
The show has two sections: one exhibiting historical and vintage woven handbags and a second section presenting a collection of contemporary pieces curated to show the variety of contemporary basketry in which three of my handbag-baskets are featuring. As you can see on the posters (first and last slides) some of the antique pieces are absolute treasures and inspire to pair fine weaving with intricate metallic fixtures! They're so stylish!
It's on all summer until late november.
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~ exposition de paniers sacs à main ~
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Je suis ravie d'avoir été parmi les vannièr.e.s choisies pour représenter les sacs à main en vannerie contemporaine au Vlechtmuseum de Bornem près d'Anvers en Belgique! L'exposition se présente en deux parties: une tirée des collections du musée de paniers anciens historiques et vintage et un deuxième volet sur les pièces de vannerie contemporaines; où paraissent mes pièces en compagnie d'autres venus des quatre coins d'Europe. Comme vous pouvez l'entrevoir sur l'affiche (1ere et dernière photo du caroussel) les pièces anciennes fabuleuses inspirent avec leur vannerie fine d'osier ou de rotin et leurs attachements métalliques... Trop stylées!
L'expo est en place jusqu'à fin novembre!
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#handbagdesign #fashionhistory #stylishbaskets #handbaskets #wovenhandbags #vlechtmuseum #basketryexhibition #expositiondevannerie #antiquebaskets #antiquebasketry #contemporarycrafts #contemporarybasketry #handmadedesign #designermaker #basketry #willowbasketry #vanneriecontemporaine #sacamaindosier #sacamaintressé #sacamainvannerie #histoiredelavannerie #histoiredustyle #histoiredelamode

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