Harvesting Willow Bark for basketry or fibre arts

Spring time is the perfect time for harvesting willow bark to dry out and store for future projects and thats exactly what I was doing today. The sap is flowing and the bark is eager to break away from the branch. It is important when harvesting willow that you leave some branches behind for the pollinators, you don’t need to cut the whole tree, just a branch or two.

I love foraging for craft materials, its reassuring to know that in this expensive world you can get by scratching the crafting itch by using what is abundantly growing around you here in Ireland

Lets go through how to strip bark from the tree.

Harvesting Willow from a tree

First find a large enough Willow Tree, too young and it will not have large enough branches, you are looking for thumb sized ones or larger, this Willow has been uncut in my garden for a couple of years but was planted a long time ago, the branches are long, straight, and have relatively few “offshoots”

Choose a large, long, thick branch with few offshoots.

Prepare your tools

You only need a couple of tools for this job, secateurs, a scoring knife, a flat thing, i found this in my cupboard but a flat head screwdriver should do the trick.

And… of course… a cup of tea

Scoring a line

Remove any off shoot branches using secateurs, Score a line through the centre of the willow branch, breaking the skin of the branch

Prise the Bark

Stick your flat thing inbetween the branch and the bark, and run the tool up and down under the fold, releasing the bark from the branch. You should find, if its Spring time, the bark easily falls away from the tree, be careful around the nodules.

Roll the willow bark you have harvested inside out, this flattens it as it dries, and tie with twine, hang to dry for a couple of weeks

Create something amazing.

Once your willow bark is dry, place it in boiled water for about half an hour, then wrap in a damp towel for another half hour to mellow, it is then soft, supple and workable, you can cut it with scissors, or drill it with a small drill.

You can then create something beautiful with the bark you have foraged from your garden.

Have you created anything with Willow Bark?

Share in the comments!

Want to know more? I am holding spring bark weaving workshops in Ballinspittle at the West Cork Collective this Spring, check out my Workshop Information Page