Faggots, Pimps and Throstles (The Splint Basket MkII)

Perhaps an odd sounding title, but I had a very pleasant evening talking to the Southrepps Society about material ecology and the development of a productive coppice ecosystem.

The star of the show was the splint basket which, in conjunction with the newly established coppice, I used as a case study.

This is the MkII splint basket, and I've used 'riven' splints (split and shaved) rather than sawn timber.  Is this a more authentic technology? I'm not certain, but I would have thought that reliance on saw-milled timber for the splints would be a late nineteenth century development. 

And nothing wrong with that!  The original Jack Rowsell basket which I have in my collection uses sawn timber splints and it's a beautiful example of the species!  

In this case however, I thought that the simple, in-situ, process of splitting coppice poles with a froe, would be more sympathetic to the coppice cycle. 

So with the aid of forty-plus images (leading up to the finished basket) I hoped to illustrate the ecology of a sustainable coppice ecosystem, particularly in terms of its material products rather than concentrating on the more familiar values of habitat and amenity. 

I had lots of interesting questions and some very kind comments and messages, and with no heckling from the 'dress circle',  I'm saying it was something of a success.

And what, you may ask, are Faggots, Pimps and Throstles?...well that's now a secret that only the Society knows!