I have been making these cubbies and caisies for several decades now, inspired by the traditional forms and techniques that survive. I learned from makers across the islands, starting with round coiled baskets and chair backs made from rushes and straw. My interests in the forms and materials that can be used have developed over the years and in my current work I have been using any that come to hand in my local area and that show promise; from oat straw, rushes, grasses of various kinds, dockans, the stems of knapweed and aster and other various ‘weeds’. All the twines I use are hand dyed by me, using vegetable dyestuffs grown or found in my garden - onions, shallots, beetroot, dockans, tannins from willow and other trees, as well as homemade iron and copper mordants.