How we make our willow coffins…
By far, the most common question I get asked is “How long does it take to make a coffin?” The quick answer is: around 4 days. The long answer is a little bit more involved, but essentially looks like this…
We buy all our willow from growers in Somerset, who cut their willow crop annually. By the time it arrives with us it, it is dried and bundled into different sizes and lengths. In order to be able to use the willow, we have to soak it in water for anything from a few hours to more than a week (willow that still has its bark on - always called ‘brown’ willow, no matter the colour - takes, as an average rule of thumb, around 1 day per foot in length to soak). So the first job is to sort the willow into different smaller bundles, and then put these in the soaking tank for different lengths of time. When the willow has soaked for long enough, it gets wrapped in towels and blankets and left to ‘mellow’ overnight.
Tom prepares the wooden base board, cutting it out and drilling holes for the stakes. He does the same for the wooden lid centrepiece, making them ready to weave into as soon as the willow is soaked. Tom also hand carves the hazel toggles that complete the coffin, these coming from prunings out of our hazel orchard at some point during the year.
The weaving process starts with the upright stakes in the base, which form the skeleton of the coffin - the same as with any basket. We use 7ft willow rods for these, so they are super strong. We then switch to 6ft willow for the ‘upsett’ (weaving up the side of the basket/coffin), using different kinds of weaves to create different effects with the willow.
Half way up the sides, we put in our sisal rope handles, weaving around these with 4ft willow to create a nice and strong band, then carry on with 5ft willow to the top. If we are using stripped willow for the stakes, the whole coffin needs to go back into the soaking tank upside down for a few hours to make the willow pliable enough again to bend down the top border. If we’re using brown willow, we can carry straight on and do the border without needing to re-soak. The reason for this is that while stripped willow is much quicker to soak (needing hours rather than days), making it very convenient to use in a shorter timeframe, it also dries out much quicker. If we don’t re-soak it, the stakes will crack and break. The base is completed with a decorative plait border around the bottom.
Once the base of the coffin is finished, we move on to the lid, again using different lengths and weaves to create the same pattern we have on the base. The lid is also finished off with a plait border, but this one does more than decoration - it helps to tie in the weave, as well as creating a lip that sits around the top edge of the base of the coffin, holding it in place.
The only things left to add are the cotton rope ties and hazel toggles, and then the liner. We employ Tom’s mum, Jane, to do the calico linings for us, which she does in her workshop (almost) next door. We finish the liner off with stuffing the mattress and pillow with hay cut from our organic farm (another job that gets done throughout the year!)
So… as you can see… it’s an involved process! And whilst most people who ask “How long does it take…?” just want a simple answer, I love musing over the whole long process from the willow growing in a field in Somerset, to a completed coffin on a table in my workshop in Warwickshire.
