Caz Ingall

Willow Coffin Weaver

I started working with willow more than a decade ago and was immediately hooked on both the craftform and the fact that I could be in control of everything along the journey of bringing a basket into being - from growing, harvesting and preparing the willow, to using only my hands and a few simple tools to create a wide variety of beautiful and functional items.

Helping to weave my aunt-in-law’s willow coffin after she died in 2015 was a profoundly moving and beautiful experience.  Not only did it open my eyes to a new level of willow work, it also really clarified my perception of our modern culture’s disconnection from death, dying and grief, and offered a way for me to take my basketmaking skills in a new direction.  

I knew at that time I wanted to eventually make my own coffins.  Five years later, over a period of four days, the amazing Mel Bastier taught me and my husband, Tom, how to weave a coffin from start to finish.  From this place, Wild Heart Coffins was born…