How to make your own forest weave

Photograph by Alex Fountain

I created my first plant weave in 2016 on a walk in the New Forest, Hampshire. I only bought along a pair of scissors and a ball of twine. This tutorial will explain how to create your own in your garden or on a walk.

You will need:

scissors

pen knife (optional)

string/jute/garden twine

gardening gloves (optional)

plant waste

On your walk/in your garden look out for 4 branches, these can be any size. Try to find ones that are as straight as possible, strong, and similar in length and thickness.

Place your sticks into a square or rectangle with the top and bottom sticks underneath the vertical sticks and slightly overlapped, like pictured above.

You will then need to secure each corner in place using strong string or twine. Cut an arm length of string and double knot to one corner. Wrap the string round under and over as tightly as possible in different directions. Leaving the first end sticking out, you can finish with a double knot. If the frame is still wobbly tie again with another length of string over the top.

Repeat and tie all four corners

When you have secured all four corners, you are ready to warp the frame for weaving. The warp is the vertical strings that the plants can go over and under.

If you want to, you can leave notch marks in the top and bottom of the frame using a pen knife. This will help with spacing and keep the string in place.

Rotate the frame so that the top and bottom branches are overlapped on top, like pictured above.

With your bundle of string double knot to the top left hand corner of your weave structure. Take the string down to the bottom and go over.

Take the string underneath the bottom branch and up going over the top branch.

You are now ready to select your plants, flowers and natural materials for the weft. Select materials that have long stems as these will be easier to weave with. Experiment with different materials, I have used lavender, lemon basil and other dried plants.

To weave, select a plant and go over and under the warp strings and push down with your hands to the bottom to create a row. You can leave the leaves sticking out for texture.

To weave your second row pick up the opposite strings going over and under

Keep weaving in as many plants as you like, depending on if you want the plants to be dense and compact or more spacious.

When you are happy with your woven plants and want to hang it up, tie a length of string in a triangle at the top.

You can leave your forest weave indoors or outdoors, if kept in a dry space the plants will dry and you can keep them for years. My first forest weave still looks the same after 5 years.

Below is a forest weave I made on a walk, using bark, branches and plants I found on the forest floor. You can use anything, flowers, grasses, twigs and herbs.

I created a huge forest weave as part of an Arts Council England Funded Community Project called Interactive Weaves, see how it was woven here.

As part of the project I also made a huge moon weave out of willow, new zealand flax, bamboo and grasses, see it here.

Please share your forest weaves using the tag #interactiveweaves or tagging the project instagram page @interactiveweaves. I would love to see them!

Instagram - @vanderhume

Click here to go back to the project homepage