This september Withy Lore took part in the Museum of Cornish Life's annual Helston Makes it events, which sees a week of celebrating craft and makers. We organised a family day themed around our Withy Lore exhibition which was housed upstairs in their gallery space upstairs.
Our family day activities had already been put in to action for the first time at our Withy Lore exhibition in Truro earlier this year and we couldn't wait to share them again!
We had three activities available:
Withy pot detectives
Visitors became a withy pot detective by investigating characteristics of withy pots through tracing from a selection of our withy pot gallery. They could also see examples of illustrations I have been creating to help document the craft, as part of the project and once they were finished with their creations they were tasked to find the pot in the exhibition room upstairs!
Corky Baban Making
We couldn't have had a family day without any willow weaving involved! Families learned simple weaving techniques to create the base of a little boat inspired by a story we were told by withy pot maker Nigel Legge from Cadgwith. A Corky Baban, translated from Cornish, meaning baby boat, traditionally made by quay boys in St Ives, from cork, slate and other found items. Produced as an offering to the sea.
We asked participants to create sails from old dictionaries, so that they could play with words to name their boats! Which were then attached to willow masts, then pushed into the willow base and finally a wish for the coming winter was written onto a scroll and tied to the finished boat. It was magical seeing them walk away with their boats, as though they were sailing away into the distance :D
Withy pot barnacles
Found beach plastic ropes kindly donated to us by Cornish Spiced, were woven by visitors around purpose made wire framed withy pots. These were produced to ignite conversations around the topic of sustainability and the introduction of plastic and metal pots, in the late 20th century, that rapidly declined the practice of traditional willow withy pot making around the south west.
We have been overwhelmed by the wonderful feedback from those who took part, which included :
How have you found the family day activities?
'Absorbing and relaxing'.
'Really lovely and interesting/engaging activities. Lovely volunteers too'.
'Engaging and interesting new experiences'.
'Interesting just watching the children have a go'.
' Entertaining and informative. A good educational element!
Have you learnt anything new about withy pots?
'What the differences were depending on location and materials available'.
'The rangind styles of the makers'.
What have you enjoyed most about the family day?
'Making something with natural fibres'.
'We feel lucky to have stumbled upon the family'.
We would like to thank those who attended, from locals to holiday makers! We know that there were a lot of other events on that day and we are very thankful you popped in to see us :) Thank you also to the Museum of Cornish life for inviting us along to your special event and for all the wonderful help and support we received from your staff and volunteers.
The summer of 2025 flew by and before we knew it, September had arrived and myself and Storylines were setting up our second Withy Lore exhibition at the Musuem of Cornish Life in Helston, Cornwall! not all that far away from home :)
The museum was once the towns market building and now holds a large collection of objects full of Cornish history, including baskets and a mystery withy pot.
We were kindly given the exhibition room upstairs and with its tall ceiling, large windows and curved walls we could tell it would have a different feel to the space we had in Truro. Smaller in scale, we couldn't display everything, which meant we had to carefully select what we felt would fit without compromising on the stories we wished to share. We knew we only had a few days to put it all together, before welcoming those involved in the project to come and have a look at the final result, which was quite nerve wracking, but also a lovely excuse, once again, to all get together over tea and cake!
We would like to thank the Musuem of Cornish Life for having us, also our funders for their support with this project The Fishmongers Company, Basket Makers' Association and the Little Parc Owles Trust and of course all of those involved and supporting the project!
Thank you for reading :)
