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Suzy Bennett
Katherine Miles
Weaving wildlife from willow
Entering Katherine Miles’ workshop, you are met with a menagerie of animals - leaping hares, imperious stags and thoughtful looking highland cattle - plus the odd plump chicken...
Katherine is one of only a handful of willow sculptors working in the UK, creating lifesized animals out of hundreds of Somerset-raised Black Maul willow twigs, which have been soaked to render them pliable enough to bend and weave.
Becoming a professional sculptor of willow almost came about by accident, after years working as a freelance photo editor and photographic agent in the South East.
She said: ‘I did a basket-making course when I lived in Brighton and absolutely loved it. Then my daughter said: “Can you make me a horse?”’
Katherine moved to Moretonhampstead four years ago after a spell in Totnes and her list of willow weaving commissions has steadily grown and grown. She now works in an old chapel right by her home, sharing the workspace with felt maker Yuli Somme.
Her first order came after she approached the Toby Buckland Garden Centre at Powderham Castle and asked if they’d like a life-sized stag at their Christmas fair - and business snowballed from there.
Katherine said: ’Ever since I was really little I’ve always loved making things, but it was always animals. And I suppose as my background was in environmental science - I had my own photo library and worked for Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund - it was always going to be that way.
‘There’s no real training on how to make animals out of willow. I don’t do drawings first - I suppose if I do a new animal I would go to Google images to work out their particular stances and just go from there.’
For larger four legged animals, like the highland cows or stags, she starts with a metal frame, usually created by her partner, a blacksmith. She works around the legs and creates a barrel shape for the body. Filling in the shape takes the most time, with the head going on last. Large animals will probably take Katherine up to a week to create.
‘There’s a kind of character that comes as you start building them,’ she said. ‘I find I start talking to them - I have been known to put them together at the end of the day. I know it’s utterly ridiculous but I do form attachments to them - and I always know it’s a success when people pat them!’
Painted with a mixture of 50/50 linseed and turpentine to repel water, the sculptures should last for years.
Katherine said she enjoyed a challenge and believed working out of her comfort zone stretched her skills. She particularly likes making life-sized pieces and groups of animals.
She has completed many individual commissions for significant birthdays, wedding presents or anniversaries, plus special one-off pieces, for example, a cow that lives in the shippen at Uppacott House, the historic Grade I Listed farmstead near Poundsgate, restored by the Moor Than Meets the Eye project.
One of her most unusual commissions last year was a 25 foot long, 12 foot high Tyrannosaurus Rex for Canonteign Falls.
‘They have a Victorian fern garden half way up their waterfall and they wanted to encourage children to go up the falls to see it. It’s now in there and the kids go mad for it!’
The dinosaur took Katherine three weeks to complete - a project she described as ‘quite a challenge but fabulous to weave’. It also created quite a stir when it was transported on a low-loader through the narrow roads of Bovey Tracey and the Teign Valley!
Living on the edge of Dartmoor provides constant inspiration for Katherine’s sculptures - hence the proliferation of Highland cows in the workshop, although no dinosaurs have recently been seen in the national park.
‘Wherever I go I spend half my time thinking “I wonder if I could weave one of those?”,’ said Katherine, who admits she’s not good at doing nothing and isn’t the type to be found on the sofa with a book.
Between commission work, Katherine runs willow sculpting workshops and attends art events and fairs - including this year, Glastonbury Festival.
‘That was brilliant!’ she said. ‘I wove two nine foot high dancing hares, which I thought was appropriate. It was lovely to see people walking past looking at them.
‘I never would have thought seven years ago I would be living here, being able to make a living creating willow animals - I love it, it’s incredible!’
Jane Honey