——October 16–19——Session 1: Buff & White Willow Basketry with Steen Madsen from Denmark

Related Courses/Events: Basketry Courses

Registration closes September 1 so the instructor can prepare materials.

Dates: Session 1, Thursday-Sunday, October 16–19, 2025 9am-5pm

Optional: Thursday, October 15 Craft Night Potluck Meet & Greet with Steen at 6pm BYOB

Description: Weave your own adventure 4-day Basket Weaving Class with buff and white willow. We are mainly going to weave baskets with peeled willow, but if you bring your own willow—wild or homegrown—you are welcome to use them as decoration. Either cut them just before the workshop or use dried and soaked willow.

This class has a Special Cancellation Policy—please read below before registration.

Absolute beginners will learn to weave a round basket with one handle or two with all those techniques involved in this. Plus easier small stuff like rattles, simple trays etc. will be possible.

If you have woven a few round baskets earlier, you can now learn to weave an oval basket, which is quite a bit more complicated than round baskets.

If you haven woven a lot of baskets, you should try more oval baskets in different techniques, rectangular baskets, bags like fishing creels—but you don’t need to use them for fishing or perhaps a smaller backpack which is almost the same technique as bags.

Workshop Fee: $450.

Materials Fee: A materials fee of approximately $120 is payable directly to the instructor during class. The materials fee depends of the amount of willow used.

Special Cancellation Policy: No refunds for cancellations unless your spot is filled from the waitlist. Let us know as soon as possible if you are cancelling. 15% cancellation fee applies.

STEEN MADSEN started at 14 yrs old as a flint knapper at a Historical Research Center in Denmark where he also learned other crafts like weaving, rope making, tanning, spinning, weaving, all kinds of woodworking, making bone flutes and combs during his teenage years. In his late twenties he became more and more interested in weaving with willow—eel traps/fishing traps and traditional baskets. In 1992 he wrote Flet med Pil (Weave with Willow published in Danish) and in 2000 Baskets with Corners. Since the mid-1990’s Steen is a full-time basket maker and basket historian for film sets, theater, design shops, artists, and private commissions as well as teaches workshops all over Europe, USA and Canada including North House Folk School, California Institute of the Arts, Yale School of Art, Willow Gathering in Iowa, and Lakeshore Willow in Ontario. He grows his own willow and lives in a traditional house with a thatched roof in Denmark.