Posts Tagged ‘willow coffin’
You can currently see a very nice article about WinterWillow on the Home & Garden online pages of Cambridge-news.co.uk
Written by Emma Higginbotham, the piece illustrates the history and background to the formation of WinterWillow as a craft based social enterprise.
It is also an opportunity to highlight the ‘green’ credentials of WinterWillow and to show the care and craft that the WinterWillow team put into the creation of their woven willow eco-coffins.
Check out the online article here for more information about us.
You can visit our own web pages here.
WinterWillow - the woven English willow eco-coffin.
Image: Rob Janko of the WinterWillow team
WinterWillow coffins - eco-friendly
Following the success of the Places of Change garden at Chelsea this year, and the great interest in woven willow eco-coffins by large numbers of visitors – we are very pleased to tell you that the Eden Project are continuing the story by featuring our eco-coffins as part of the legacy exhibition from the garden display at the Flower Show.
During June, July and August 2010 you will be able to see a WinterWillow woven coffin at The Eden Project in Cornwall.
The work of our weaving team will be part of a featured display to celebrate the energy and work of all the organisations and individuals who helped to make Places of Change such a success.
We were delighted to take a small part in this creative process and would like to offer WinterWillow congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make the garden happen.
Weaving your way to the West Country?
If you are in Cornwall this summer and would like to visit the Eden Project you can find more information here.
Roger Fowle, our weaving tutor at WinterWillow, has written a short account of his journey in willow.
Describing how he got started, what captured his imagination and those who gave him help along the way.
Roger is working both to support the weaving team at WinterWillow and to help encourage the take-up of weaving skills by the users of our Centre at WinterComfort for the Homeless.
Roger says that ‘…willow weaving is a great way to acquire useful new skills, to get back into work or to create objects which can be sold to support the work of our charity’.
The weaving team at WinterWillow are always happy to show visitors their work and to encourage others to take up the craft.
From small baskets, woven eco-coffins can grow.
We are delighted to announce that WinterWillow, part of the charity WinterComfort for the Homeless, will be presenting a willow woven eco-coffin at the Chelsea Flower Show this year.
Running from May 25th to May 29th 2010, Chelsea offer visitors an amazing array of floral displays, trade stands and visitor attractions. We are proud to be a part of the horticultural festivities this year.
We use only the best English willow in the making and craft of our eco-coffins and wider basketry items. The cultivation and sustainable cropping of willow is an abiding theme with the WinterWillow team.
Using no nails, metal fastenings or chemical based adhesives – our woven eco-coffins are a perfect piece of English craft for Chelsea – fully in sympathy with the ethos of the show, the care of living things and their sustainable use.
WinterWillow will be sharing a space on the Places of Change stand, along with other social enterprise and Spark Challenge organisations.
If you visit the show you will be able to see an example of one of our woven willow eco-coffins throughout the show week. The WinterWillow team will be in attendance on Wednesday 26th May 2010.
Do visit us at the show if you are attending. Every item we take orders for goes directly to support the work of our charity team at WinterComfort for the Homeless. We look forward to seeing you there.
We mentioned in a previous blog entry our attendance at the Natural Burial Conference at Sheffield University.
You can see a full conference report, with some of the questions the debate raised on our main web site.
It was a great event, with much lively debate and new research evidence about the motives, considerations and development of those providing services and using natural/woodland burial as an option in their final ceremonies.
The conference audience was an eclectic mix of funeral directors, woodland site owners and managers, clergy, academics and recently bereaved individuals who had agreed to take part in the research exercise. This body of academic work was funded by the ESRC for three years.
The closing conference session was by the Chair of the Association of Natural Burial Grounds, whose work is complimentary to the Natural Death Centre.
If you are provoked to comment on our musings – then use the comment button below and let us know at WinterWillow.
During March 2010 WinterWillow will be attending the Natural Burial Conference at Sheffield University.
The conference looks to examine …the cultural, social and emotional implications of natural burial.
Part of the Natural Burial Project, the research is being undertaken by the University Department of Landscape and the Department of Sociological Studies .
The study, part of a three year project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council is attempting to look at the ways in which natural burial affects individual choice, how it affects the emotions, how it may be symbolic of our return to greener, more sustainable practices and how we might remember loved ones differently.
We think it will be interesting to see how our research as a social enterprise in the green funeral field and our interaction with our funeral profession partners marries with the findings of the research team. We’ll let you know how we got on after the event.
We were absolutely delighted to be reviewed in The Natural Death Centre newsletter this month.
We were able to see Roger Fowle, our weaving tutor at work on a coffin in our workshop and to read how well our manufacturing ethos and distribution ideas fit with people who are interested in holding a green funeral.
Our WinterWillow coffins are all made with passion and care, involving no nails or metal fixings and using water based glues and sustainable timber and English willow.
Thanks to the NDC for the feature, we really appreciated it.
