Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Marie Drouet’s willow weaving craftsmanship goes beyond basketry

Marie Drouet’s willow weaving craftsmanship goes beyond basketry
Marie Drouet’s pieces have earned her a prized spot in the small world of contemporary basketry. Going beyond just willow, the French craftswoman has big ambitions, but keeps her feet firmly on the ground.
Marie Drouet gladly describes herself as a tinkerer—she received her first Opinel knife at the age of eight. In her family, the rule was: If you want something, don’t buy it—make it. This is where she got her ingenuity and tenacity, as well as an almost frenzied appetite for work. She has itchy fingers. « I have to keep them moving and occupied, otherwise I get bored, » she says. So she weaves and weaves and weaves: willow in her workshop and twigs on the beach. Drouet is a basket maker by trade, but rather than weaving the traditional baskets one might associate with the craft, she brushes aside norms and limits. Consider the luxuriant and strikingly ethereal structures she coaxes from her raw material, willow.

Selecting raw material


Drouet sources willow from within France, mostly from the Loire valley. She buys bundles, then sorts to select the best rods—ones that are straight, flexible, and solid, and that won’t break when bent. When working with white willow, which has been stripped of its bark by the grower, she soaks the rods before and during weaving. But when working with raw, unstripped willow, the process is longer. In this case, Drouet soaks the rods in troughs in her garden. Soaking takes one to three weeks, a series of steps that demands patience. Then everything speeds up. « When the weaving begins, it has to be finished in two to five days, before the rods dry, » explains Drouet. She set up her workshop in the cellar to take advantage of the humidity levels. There, works in progress await under protective coverings.