Willow Baskets at Snow Farm

This summer I had the honor of teaching at Snow Farm: The New England Craft Program in Massachusetts. I had previously known about the school but had never attended as a student. When I was contacted about teaching a weekend workshop I was thrilled to have the opportunity to teach and visit this beautiful school.

When you drive past the beautiful farmland, and into the woods you see the Snow Farm sign and take a right down the drive. It feels like you are driving into a little secret school that’s hidden away. Snow Farm is on 50 acres and it was once a farm owned by the Snow Family, who must have loved exotic trees because walking around this campus in the Spring I was amazed at how many gorgeous flowering trees there were that I couldn’t identify.

The school campus is made up of several studios, a dinning hall and dorm rooms. The dorms were simple and cozy, and by far the best choice for really immersing yourself in the class as the Studios are open as long as you want.

I arrived Friday afternoon to get myself situated and set up for my weekend class. I was set in the Fiber Studio which was the old farmhouse, and we had a wonderful big table to gather around. With the class almost full at 9, I knew it would be full of busy hands and lots of chatter (which I absolutely love).

There was a cool and quiet little side yard that I adored, but with this group they all enjoyed each other’s company and the conversations didn’t stop so we stuck to our weaving circle at the table.

I had such a lovely group of artists and makers, some who have known and worked at the school before and other’s who were newbies like I was.

Everyone got right to work and I had to instill in them that they would be working very hard this weekend on a slightly reduced timeframe than I was used to. Homework or late night studio night!!! And almost everyone finished their baskets by the end of the second day, which a much greater appreciation to the craft of willow basketry.

One of the things I love the most about these schools is the communal dinning. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner together. There’s something about the sharing of skills and food that just makes the experience one you will never forget. And the food at Snow Farm was absolutely AMAZING!!! I was totally blown away and looked forward to every meal.

On the first day I was made aware that the school takes donations from the teachers at the school. This was all I needed to hear to get me motivated to work on a little basket. I spend most of the night hours and early morning hours working on this little basket that I could donate to the school. The willow used in this basket was actually loopy first year streamco that I soaked up as an experiment. It seemed it was meant to be and titled the piece “First Year” since this was my first year teaching at Snow Farm and the first year willow that went into making the basket.

I was so lucky to have such a wonderful group of ladies that weekend, and I had such a lovely time. Teaching or taking classes at folk/craft schools is such a wonderful opportunity to really immerse yourself into your work. There are no distractions; no one to stop you from your work. It’s a very special gift that you can give yourself to devote the time to learning a new skill and creating a beautiful work of art that you will cherish forever. I really do have an affinity for this type of model and I hope that they will have me back at snow farm to teach again next year.

I honestly had one of the best classes! They all did spectacular, and they worked really hard to take home beautiful baskets that I’ve already seen in the wild on instagram. It was a weekend of joy, love and new friendships….of big butts and wide hips and “just a liiiiiiittle bit more”