How To Make A Traditional Split Hazel Basket - Lewis Goldwater

I was fortunate to spend time with friend and respected craftsman Lewis Goldwater at his woodland workshop and cottage in the county of Herefordshire in the West of England, next to the border with Wales

Lewis is one of only a handful of split hazel basket makers in the UK, and one who teaches and demonstrates the craft around the UK

In this video Lewis has kindly allowed me to document in incredible detail the entire process for harvesting the Hazel, processing it and subsequently weaving the components together to form a finished basket

At the time of publishing this video, this is the only such tutorial available anywhere online so you really are in for a treat to see a traditional craft in such detail

Lewis’s intention with this video is to inspire more people like yourself to try this craft out and to help keep it alive

If you’d like to contact Lewis in regards to learning this craft in person or to commission a handmade basket for yourself, you can contact him via his website which I have linked to above

As you can see this is a long video and that is because this process in it’s entirety takes two days from start to finish, over which we filmed leaving no stone unturned

Below is a timestamp of all the sections in this video

To jump to any particular section simply click on the numbers on the left hand side and it will take you straight there

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:04:12 - Basket history and examples
00:09:47 - Harvesting the Hazel
00:23:47 - Looking at the components of the basket
00:28:18 - Tools required to make the basket
00:31:25 - Making the weavers
01:08:37 - Making the ribs
01:33:08 - Making the rim
02:17:15 - Assembling the basket
03:41:53 - Finishing up the basket
03:45:34 - Conclusion

A sincere thank you to Lewis for being so generous with his knowledge and for his kind hospitality during my stay with him and his wife

As always I sincerely appreciate you watching

Take care

Peace

Zed

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[doggiewithhaircut]

i woke up jn the middle of the night to this playing on my phone

[JEEROFUKU]

Another brilliant tutorial! Thank you, Mr.Goldwater for preserving this lovely art and sharing your knowledge with us! Warm regards🙏🏻🍀♥️

[michaeledwards]

Excellent video and quite important historically to have this recorded. I cannot wait to have a go at making one of these.

[jimbartley]

Enjoyed your tutorial. Thanks for your time. Cheers. Jim

[successschool]

Your videos are very calming brother. Thank you - I'm sure you help a lot of people get thru the day 🙏

[davidsimmons]

Absolutely amazing! Thank you! This has been a great adventure and a journey of discovery! Lewis, you are incredibly patient and such a good teacher! The both of you should be National Treasures! Jeb, for your recordings which I find very “in depth” and detailed. I am coming back from a stroke and I’d rather learn I new skill than anything else. Thank you both so very much!

Thank you for making this available for us!

[rosepop]

Great video Zed . This is why I like your videos you provide so much variety . Some outdoor style youtuber videos while being great often do the same processing wood, have a fire have food and a beer . Your always an interesting watch . Thanks Zed

[briandavis]

My family made white oak baskets for well over 150 years, and my parents picked up the art when I was 12. I made baskets all through school and college. It is an art that is being lost as too many try to make things with machines instead of by hand. The only machines we used were chainsaws to cut and rip logs in half, a table saw with an 18" blade to make dimensional boards depending on what was being made, a table saw for cutting handles, and a jointer to give clearance for weave to reside. Everything from that point was drawn off using drawing knives to make weave, ribs, bands, and tie. We sold baskets from $8 to $350 depending on the level of work and materials in it.

[andrewsackville-west]

Sick in bed with COVID. Yep, I watched the WHOLE thing. Brilliant. Thank you for sharing this knowledge and craft! I hope to spend some time on this the coming winter.

[amuki]

Many many thanks for a great video👍👏👏👏

[benjamenplus]

Epic video ! Thank you so much Lewis and Zed. I had to watch it in stages, but that was great because I had more viewing to look forward to and I'm really glad we got to see the whole process . Now I'm even more excited for my Bodger's Ball course with Lewis in a couple of weeks !! Yayyy. Just deciding if I want bark on or bark off now so looking forward to it, I'm gonna love it.

[incognitusmaximus]

Simply wonderful :) Much appreciated 👍

[sabiner]

Thank you very much for this very instructive and quite inspiring video! Fortunately, my neighbour had a lot of hazels cut just yesterday, and doesn't know what to do with them. Now I will give it a try, and make some baskets for my cats... ;-)

[dhanashreesupe]

Thankyou for sharing:)
Love from India ❤

[Captain_Mattt]

Thanks Z hope 2 finally finish it this evening

[Crosswalker.]

6:00 and 2:46:35 This looks EXACTLY like the baskets I used to carry around at my grandparents farm to carry beans or food for the chicken or corn or other stuff 😁 you nailed the look!

[erikzajzaj]

Appreciate the amount of time this must have taken you Zed. I learned spooncarving and bowlturning almost entirely from watching your vids and trial and error, now embarking on making split baskets.
Massive thank you my man, you are an absolute legend.

[jennifermcdonald]

The amount of knowledge this guy has is phenomenal, of course there’s always more to learn. It seems to me that he’s far more comfortable by himself in his woods, than teaching his art to others, however I’m very glad he’s willing to leave his comfort zone and do this, so many more of us can learn from him. These skills are so important to keep alive, I think we may need them before too long.

[Sheepdog]

very cool - but we have no hazel here in this part of the US (New England)...what would the closest tree/shrub be instead?