Meet the Maker - Claire Gaudion, Guernsey Willow Baskets

July 29, 2026

Ahead of the highly anticipated Guernsey Basket Pop Up we sat down with Claire Gaudion; basket weaver and owner of Guernsey Willow Baskets to talk basket weaving, inherited craft and the vitality of keeping traditional making alive.

Claire hails from a long line of basket weavers; a fishing family in which the making of baskets was integral to a successful catch. With a history spanning centuries, Guernsey Baskets have become synonymous with the island itself, a symbol of the fishing community, its legacy and the Guernsey way of life.

Read on for our full conversation with Claire.

Could you give us an insight into the origins of the Guernsey basket; its history, cultural importance and how it contributed to a communal identity in Guernsey?

That’s really at the heart of all of this for me. There are a number of fishing baskets that were used in Guernsey for fishing, but perhaps the most recognisable and the one which Labour and Wait has in store is the ponier à cou. The origins of it, really, I could not tell you how far back that goes. It's something that's been in my family for many generations because of the fishing industry. My Dad was a fisherman, he’s retired now,but still makes baskets. He used to make all his baskets as tools for his fishing; he would make the ponier à cou to go foraging at low tide for collecting the local shellfish.He'd make crab pots and lobster pots out of willow, which he would take out on his boat and then drop into the sea to catch crabs, lobster and maybe even crayfish. He would also make baskets called the courge - these were traditionally for holding the sandeels,which were fishing bait. The courge would be tied and slung over the back of the boat so that it always had seawater running through it, which kept the bait alive and in a better condition for longer. These baskets are all functional containers, catchment or storage containers that were used as part of fishing. Nowadays, they've been replaced by a lot of metal and plastic alternatives, sadly, and there's lots of commercial fishing reasons for why that's happened. But they are such an iconic thing, really, items which are so connected to the local landscape and local heritage of Guernsey.

Fishing is something that's been, and still is, very rooted in the island and all of these baskets have been connected to that. I think a lot of locals, even if their families haven't been involved in fishing, would recognise the ponier à cou in particular, as a local heritage symbol, and basket making as a heritage craft of the island. These are things which are still treasured today by locals.

The National Trust of Guernsey runs a Lé Viaër Marchi festival every year which celebrates all the local heritage crafts from basketry, with myself and my dad demonstrating, through to wool spinners and weavers. In years gone by, this would also include pole lathe wood turning and copper crafts, but those are declining in presence these days. This brings me to my passion for keeping this craft alive and really wanting to make sure it's documented, recorded and something that can be treasured for generations to come, even if it's not used so much for fishing nowadays.With my strong family heritage of this craft, it’s important to me to make sure we keep this craft relevant today. It’s no longer something that's just for fishing, but something that's really decorative, beautiful and functional for use in the home.

Over the last month I have been filming the making of the ponier à cou in Guernsey. A series of short films that show the full ‘how to make it’ process which will act as an alternative, or companion to my In Person workshops. This online learning experience will launch later this year. The filmmaker and art director I am working with are helping me to capture the story of Guernsey within the craft, as well as the full making process.My motivation is for preserving the tradition and heritage, and I want to show this basket is rooted in the island landscape and in coastal maritime life.

It’s a tradition that's really been passed on by generations watching the last generation making and continuing it. I started watching Dad make years and years ago and started having a go myself twenty-five years ago. He learned it from his great uncle Wilfred, who he used to fish with and who helped him with making his boat. So it's passed on like that through family and through the local community.

They're such a joy to make but also have so much cultural importance. One thing that was highlighted to me during the recent Lé Viaër Marchi was the number of people that started chatting about the local basket; their memories of it, locals remembering somebody in the family who used to make them. And people wanting to buy one to have that little piece of Guernsey. It’s wonderful that there's a global audience for these lovely items today. But, you know, that sense of local community is still there. It's something still recognised as being at the heart of Guernsey's heritage.

I wanted to ask a little bit about what you've learned from your father, who had the craft passed down from his great uncle. I was wondering if there was a specific point or if you have a memory of watching your father weave and instead of watching, wanting to partake and learn the craft?

I have always loved making things. My mum taught me to sew. I used to make my own clothes. I always watched Dad weaving willow, and in those days, it was always the men doing the weaving and the basket making. I don't know if that maybe hindered my starting point, perhaps I didn't see myself doing it. And so that level of confidence that ‘I can do this!’ didn't really kick in until later. But I remember Dad used to make for fishing, and for the years after, he would demonstrate every year at the Lé Viaër Marchi. Dad making crab pots became part of this public event where he would demonstrate and show the island this old craft.

I'm not quite sure when I actually said, ‘I want to have a go at this’. But I remember that it just looked like a wonderful process to engage with. I loved the tactility of the willow. And alongside this, Dad was chatting about how this craft will be gone one day. He felt, and still does, that there’s not many people making these baskets. There are one or two makers who make something similar. But having researched the ponier à cou, and the unique elements of its design, style and functionality, I think Dad and I are probablyamong the few, or maybe even the only, regular makers, that are still making the ponier& à cou in a similar way to how it's been done for generations.

That idea this craft could be lost stuck with me. So, I suppose that's when I picked up the sticks and thought, I want to have a go, I can do this. I sat down and started making my first basket. I think Dad was making a crab pot at the same time and every now and again, he'd look back and say, ‘oh, no, you've gone too far’, or ’you’ve missed that bit’and he’d stop me and share little tips about the process. And then it's learning through practice. I think the more you make, the more you find your own ways of working with the material. It's a process that I've come to absolutely love. I probably loved it from when I began,which is why I'm still doing it. That very slow flow that comes with the craft, paying attention to the details, the really nuanced detail of how the willow can bend and twist and how I can work it to its best advantage to make something that I believe is really beautiful. I do love that angle of my work as well; I like to approach it with a kind of passion for getting the best out of the willow and creating something that is really a sculptural thing as well as being a functional basket. I'm quite mindful of that as I'm working.

It sounds like a process that is, I imagine, once you get into the flow and you understand the technicalities of it, that it can be a really holistic practice.

Yes, it is. And actually, compared to some other baskets, the process of making this particular basket is quite organic. There's a method, of course, but depending on the exact shape and roundedness of the curved front of the basket and the size of the basket, all these factors will determine how you weave into the frame. I can make quite fluidly because I've made so many of them and I know exactly which step is coming next. I'm very aware in each moment what I need to do, how I need to direct the willow, and I love to focus on it as I go so that I follow every stick of willow that's going into the basket to watch how the bark will stretch and flex around the ribs and how each little twist will sit. The whole process is a real joy, it’s a real joy to do.

There are, as with probably any craft, always elements of problem solving as well.

I get my willow from Somerset, where the Musgrove family have grown it commercially for generations. The willow generally arrives cut and dried. Sometimes I buy it freshly cut so that I can sun-dry it to affect the colours of the willow. But before I start weaving, I have to soak and mellow it to make it pliable. That process is strongly affected by the weather, and it's been quite challenging over the recent heatwaves to get the willow just right because the heat really will speed up the process; cold weather has the opposite effect. Then mellowing it - once it comes out of the water trough, it's mellowed for another few days. This is resting the willow to allow the water content to even out throughout the willow rods before you weave it. Different varieties of willow respond in their own ways too. Brittany Green, the one that I use to make the ponier à cous for Labour and Wait, is my favourite willow to work with. It's got some gorgeous colours in it, and this will also vary every season depending on the growing season and weather –all those lovely little nuances are wonderful. As a result, every basket is different; the colouring might change in tone slightly from one basket to the next, just as the overallform may vary. The baskets are predominantly made freehand. While I might use templates to make the initial frames for consistency in sizing, so much more is done by eye, as you're making. Every basket will have a slightly different personality to. So, yes, it's a beautiful process, a really lovely thing.

I also love working with my hands. I’ve done textile weaving in the past. With that you're working with a loom. With basket making, your hands are the tools that are doing the weaving. Working with willow - a lovely natural material with great texture and scent - it's quite multi-sensory, and you are literally hands-on throughout the making. I love that immediate engagement. That immediacy of having the material that I am working with in my hands, being so close to it and being the thing that is doing the making, that feels lovely.

That must feel incredibly special to be able to possess that craft within yourself, but then also to be able to share and teach the craft to others.

Yes, I love sharing my craft! There’s a real mix of people that come and join my workshops. Some of them are basket makers that want to learn a new style of basket or improve their practice, and some have never woven willow before. I think that there's something very engaging, something all absorbing about basket making; you’re in the moment, loving the feel of it, the weaving… and then you have that sense of accomplishment when you have made something. I think the overall experience,probably fuelled by the fact you're working with such a beautiful, natural material, really takes you away from all of the technology of today, it’s very grounding. Basketry is something that many people love for that ‘in-the-moment’ experience, as well as the sense of achievement of making something from a bundle of sticks.

I think there's a tendency, especially in our technological age, to become reliant on machines and technology doing things for us. And as a result, you end up not giving yourself the time, or the opportunity, to learn.

Yes, I agree. And the experience of making adds a new appreciation for how things are made and how long things take to be made by hand. We also see so many manufactured things around us, don’t we? It's easy to forget that there are some things are still only made by hand.

You've been showcased in the Chelsea Flower show and have had a visit from the Royals recently - what’s it like to take something that is so personal to you and have it be elevated into these incredibly public platforms? How have you found the reception?

I’m really proud. Those were two special occasions! At Chelsea Flower Show, with Raymond Evison Clematis, and in Guernsey as part of a showcase of local craft and heritage in St Peter Port Harbour when the Royals visited the island. Both of those were alongside my dad and my family, with Dad demonstrating and exhibiting his work too. And both were so well received. The Chelsea Flower Show exhibit had a gold medal,and I appreciate that my little contribution was minor, and they were judging the floral displays, but it still felt really lovely. When the King visited, he chatted to each of us in the family, but he chatted to Dad particularly for quite a while and you could tell there was an honest conversation going on about the craft with a genuine interest. The King then stepped around the stand where we were and commented to the whole crowd that had gathered saying, ‘You all need to have one of these. You must support this local craft, keep it alive!’ It feels really special that the baskets are being invited into a public arena because it is all helping to promote the heritage craft to continue its importance. These opportunities help to elevate it and will hopefully encourage more people to be interested and want to make, want to buy, want to become engaged with it.

And there are other platforms too - the new, now Michelin star restaurant in Guernsey, Vraic (vraic is the local word for seaweed), they have commissioned baskets to use around the restaurant. Chef Nathan Davies also wanted baskets in which to serve some of their food. Their bread basket is a spin-o] of the fishing courge, and it’s perfectly sized to hold their loaf of bread. So, this is great way of bringing these very traditional baskets into a contemporary environment for modern day use, continuing their story and helping to safeguard the craft into the future with new relevance.

I’m wondering if there is a specific basket that you enjoy making the most?

That's a hard question because they're so different! They are all different and what's lovely is being able to change between them. Actually,the one that I've enjoyed the most recently is the ponier à cou, but rather than making itwith the wire frame, as my family have always made it, I've gone back to a nineteenth century version made with willow ribs, which I found through my research at the Guernsey Folk Museum. It has much the same overall form, and the process is very similar, but there's just a few things that have to be done differently. Instead of bending the wire into shape, you're making the frame with willow, so these have to be pre-shaped before the making the frame. So, I'm calling that one the ‘viaër ponier à cou’, continuing with the Guernsey patois - the ‘old ponier à cou’. This is taking the baskets further back in time. But I do still love to make the wire frame ponier à cou, in all sizes. I make little mini ones through to much bigger versions. It's a very special basket to me. It's what I started making and it's, I think, the most recognisable of the Guernsey fishing baskets and probably the most functional one for today.

If you could tell anybody one thing, or you wanted a person to walk away with one thought about Guernsey baskets, what might that be?

I think the most important thing to me is that they are not lost. Guernsey baskets have got such a unique and local story that I really want to make sure this heritage craft is never lost.

That's wonderful. I think you're doing a lot of the legwork to make sure that that doesn't happen!

I hope so. That's really what's driving me.

Claire will be in our Covent Garden shop from the 6th - 9th of August accompanied by a selection of handwoven baskets and offering demonstrations of her weaving practice. Pop by for the opportunity to meet Claire, learn about the materials, processes and history of Guernsey baskets and maybe even purchase a basket of your own!

Pop Up Shop

12 Dryden Street,

Covent Garden,

London

WC2E 9NA

11.00am to 7.00pm

Thursday 6th - Sunday 9th August 2026

Further Information:

Guernsey Baskets at Chelsea Flower Show -

https://guernseywillowbaskets.com/blogs/events/guernsey-clematis-and-baskets-at-

rhs-chelsea

https://www.raymondevisonclematis.com/blogs/news/gold-for-the-36th-time