Tuesday 17 March 2015

Taking pride in your work











It was the last day of the basket weaving course yesterday.  I will really miss it.  I have made three shopping baskets and a large platter which will look fabulous on the table filled with bread or fruit.  I love working with my hands but basket weaving is very hard on the hands.  It starting me thinking about the many people in the past who made their living from making baskets  Whole families would often be involved in growing and processing the willow and making the baskets. They would have taken great pride in their craft, but it would have been a hard way to make a living especially as you got older.   It would take me many years to be as skilled as them and I don't think my hands would be able to cope with it for many years.    Today there are few people who make their living from making baskets, cheap imports have taken over.  They will not last anywhere near as long as a proper willow basket made by a skilled person with care and pride.   I feel it is worth paying extra for something that will last, and help to keep the skills alive.














Work on the creaky floors and stairs continues, you probably think I live in an old house with all the creaking, but it is in fact 15 years old.  The problem has been the shoddy work by the builders.  There seems to be no pride in the work, it was all done in a hurry.  We are now having to take it all up and redo it properly before we put the house on the market.  It is the latest in a long list of jobs that we have done to bring the house up to scratch.  It baffles me how so called professionals can do such poor standard work without any feelings of guilt.  We fought the company who built our house and got compensation, but I just don't understand why they didn't do it right in the first place. Cutting corners didn't save them any money in the end.

We have been thinking about moving for many years but it has never been the right time for various reasons, including my health.  News that 800  houses and a supermarket are going to be built near us has spurred me on.  When we moved here we were on the outskirts of the city, now we are being engulfed by it.  I really don't know how the roads will cope with the extra traffic, there are huge queues in and out of the city now.  The houses will no doubt be thrown up in a hurry by a national company like ours was, causing problems for the owners for many years to come.

It seems a shame that now we have got the house up to scratch we are looking to sell it, also the whole process of buying and selling is incredibly stressful but I yearn to move back out into the countryside, preferably to an old house.

What do you prefer, old or new houses?

Chickpea xx


35 comments:

  1. Hi there,I think your fruit platter is really lovely,can imagine the shopping baskets are too.I wanted to live in a cottage and wanted to have chickens etc,but my husband wanted the opposite guess who won LOL.xx

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    1. Maybe you will get your wish next time Lee x

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  2. Your basket weaving looks fantastic, well done you. We live in a house built in 1929, it is solid although apparently for the times it was shoddily built. I have no preference really, as long as I can make it my home and the rooms are a decent size. I am sorry you are having so much trouble with your house and hope it will soon my ready for selling.

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    1. Thank you Christina. :) Lots of work to do yet, will take a while as I'm trying to fit it in with work but will get there. Then it will be a case of trying to find a house we like.

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  3. I love the look of your basket platter. Sorry to hear about headaches with your stairs, it really sounds like its been a bit of an ordeal. I think I would enjoy living in an older house at some point but the two I've owned have been newish. The first was early 70s and my current one is 1980. There were lots of improvements before we bought it, so it seems like a much newer house than it is, which is mostly a good thing. I like the size and the fact that they weren't building such open-plan houses yet; the rooms are delineated and can be used for different things instead of one huge, noisy space. Those always remind me of being in a train station or something!

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    1. I like open plan, but I know what you mean about a noisy train station!

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  4. Hey Chickpea,
    Your basket platter is a very fine piece. I live in a house built about 100 years ago. It is solid and lovely. I do yearn to live more in the sticks though, with a bit of land maybe.
    Leanne xx

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    1. Hopefully one day you will make the move Leanne, though living in St Ives must be wonderful!!

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  5. Your basket platter is fabulous. I prefer the look and character of old houses but not sure I could cope with the upkeep.

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  6. Your basket work really is very good.
    Our first house was a rented 1920s terraced in town, our next, which we bought, a brand new house in an estate in the suburbs, the house we are in now (since 1981) was built in 1850 and is in the country, with a couple of acres. Mind you non of us can be sure that building wont happen near us as so many people need homes.
    Gill

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    1. Thank you. That is the worry Gill, at least if we have a bit of land around us it won't be right on our doorstep like it is now.

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  7. Your basket is lovely, I was given a willow trug for use in my garden last year as a birthday present, I can't wait to be able to use it, not for cut flowers but for veg harvest. Your right pride in work has slipped, and even when you point it out, all you get is a shrug, no one cares. Our's is a 1930 house, I would recommend an old house, plus we have nice room sizes and thick walls.

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  8. That is a beautiful basketwork platter, so congratulations on your handiwork. I bought a similar one made from willow at the wool shop in Perranuthnoe and everyone admires it. I think a woman from Breage made it from willows she grows herself - or at least that is what the label said.
    As to your question about old or new houses, I like old ones best. They just have more character and once the kitchen and bathrooms are modernised, then what is not to like? I have an old cob cottage and the walls are very thick so in winter it is cosy and in summer it is cool.

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    1. That is the woman who is running the classes Lynn, she makes beautiful baskets! We had a very old cob cottage before this house, it still had a coffin hatch in the ceiling!

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  9. Your willow platter is beautiful, it surely will become a family heirloom. I have only lived in a modern house once, never again, the next newest one was built in 1920, very solid, built by it's first owner from stones he got out of a river and carted to his site by donkey and cart! Our current cottage is around 150 years old but has been greatly extended, our last house dated back to 1560, so quite old and we had to totally renovate it.

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    1. I love the idea of getting the stones out of the river to build the house!

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  10. In England, definitely an old house :) Moving, although stressful, is a new beginning. An exciting time.

    Thanks to you, I would so love to do basket weaving too...

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    1. It is a wonderful craft to learn Dani :)

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  11. Old houses have character. Small cottages aren't really suitable for modern living with all our furniture and white goods. We built a bungalow but rough rendered it to look like an old cottage.

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  12. Our old cottage was originally two, one up one down miners cottages. Must have been really cramped with the large families they had in those days!

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  13. If I had to live in a house I would prefer an older one, but my little piece of heaven is being on the water xx

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    1. I could be tempted to live on the water!

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  14. Hello Chickpea,

    I love your basket fruit platter it's beautiful with such gorgeous Autumnal colours. Truly a treasure to keep.
    I will bear in mind your words about cheap imports.

    I admit to loving older houses, as they have more character. Our house was built in the 1940's, it's small,
    but so cosy, and comfortable. My ideal house would be a cottage overlooking the sea.

    luv
    irene
    xxxx

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    1. Thank you Irene, it will last for years :) I would like to overlook the sea one day, maybe when we are older and can't get about so well I could sit and look out at the sea :)

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  15. Wow! You did really well - was that your first attempt? If so, it is beautiful. I didn't realise there were so many gorgeous colour tones in baskets. I love older houses with lots of character the best, but they do come with their problems. So, sometimes my head has to rule my heart and go for a new-ish house with not so many maintenance problems (unless it was built by the kind of workmen you speak of!!). xCathy

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    1. It is the fourth basket I have made Cathy. Still a lot to learn. I think I will follow my heart and go for an older property next time.

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  16. I like an old house with an updated interior (kitchen & bathroom)!

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    1. Yes and damp proofing, our old cottage didn't have any!!

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  17. The basket is very beautiful! No doubt you are rightly proud of your own handiwork. We live in a 1930s house which is well built and solid but in a built up area. I long for space, Sky and a view! We are hoping to move next year - out of the area and into the countryside. I'd move to France at the drop of a hat, but there is resistance from other members of the family! I think I'd always prefer an older house with a sense of past lives x

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    1. Good luck with your move next year, you may make it before me at this rate! :)

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  18. Found you via Quiet Life In The Country. I did a one day basketweaving course on March 1st, and loved it. Your platter is fantastic [we just made one fruit basket] Very impressed with your 'bottom' and the top edges. Lovely work, well done!! Lenten blessings x

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  19. Thank you Angela, it is such a lovely craft to learn. Can't wait to do some more!

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  20. A posts about oposites. The basket is a testament of years of skill and practice whereas the new himes are built just for profit. I used to work for a major house builder and they used to kid themselves that it was good quality but you'd hear stories of houses being painted in a day and other feats of speed, no guessing what suffers. I jacked it in to go back to working with my hands and making sure I only did jobs I was happy with. Those baskets are beautiful by the way.

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