Lorna Singleton

Spelk Basket Maker and Coppice Worker

I am one of the UK’s last remaining ‘swillers’, a specialist in weaving baskets using coppiced oak. I am a graduate of the Bill Hogarth MBE Memorial Apprenticeship Trust, three years of intensive tuition in coppice woodland management and crafts. Using simple hand tools and techniques from generations past, I create baskets based on the traditional patterns from the South Cumbrian region as well as contemporary applications of this historic practice.

In 2017 oak swill basketry was listed as a Critically Endangered Craft in the Radcliffe Redlist of Endangered Crafts and hazel basketry was newly listed as Critically Endangered in the 2021 update.