Lightweight and strong wet linen basket to make hanging your washing a joy. Ten year guarantee on the handles (as long as used for purpose- no bricks or plums!). Compared to a plastic laundry basket, this will last a lifetime and compost naturally if it ever isn’t needed any more. (Then lucky you for not having any washing to do!). It is quite likely it will be handed down to the next generation.

I love the way my homegrown willow Salix Purpurea ‘Bleu’ contrasts with white willow. It is grown for its blueish hue, which surprisingly only comes after it has dried out a couple of months after harvesting. It is actually bright red whilst in the willow patch before cutting!

So I have designed this basket with half white and half ‘Bleu’ on the sides to make the most of this, using an English rand in front of two to create the spiralling band up the sides, offset with columns of colour.

White willow is willow that has been stripped of its bark as the sap is rising in the late Spring/ early summer, and I get it from Musgrove Willows in Somerset, a family run farm that has been handed down through generations.

If you prefer a plainer look, I can also make the basket in all white willow, or make the pattern in spirals instead of columns as pictured.

Made using white willow from Somerset and barked willow from my patch in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.