Weaving Nature: Basketry from Plants to People
Product Description
A holistic and interdisciplinary view of the woven craft, from plant to basket.
Authors: Mark Nesbitt and Ruth Stungo, 380 pages, 500 colour illustrations, 246 x 189 mm. Hardback, ISBN 9781842468296, Kew Publishing, 2026.
From netting to quivers, basketry in its many forms continues to be an intricate and sustainable expression of human ingenuity. The centuries-old craft of basketmaking and collection of baskets from around the world, from ancient Egypt to the current day, is interwoven with rich and diverse human stories. This account charts the last 200 years of the Kew collection.
Weaving Nature takes a holistic and interdisciplinary view of the journey from plant to basket – it explains why certain plants are favoured by makers and shows how raw materials are worked to achieve the desired use. New discoveries in the historic ethnobotanical collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unravels the complex web of empire, trade and exploration that contributed to this vast collection.
This book publishes the Kew basketry collection for the first time, heavily illustrated with photographs of approximately 200 baskets. Rich in stories and images, Weaving Nature offers new ways of appreciating one of humankind’s oldest art forms.
Author Information
Mark Nesbitt is Senior Research Leader at Kew Gardens and curator of the Economic Botany Collection. His research focuses on the relationships of people and plants over time, as explored through historic collections.
Ruth Stungo worked for a decade as the Chelsea Physic Garden’s taxonomist and historical researcher. Since undertaking a three-year basketry course, she explores Kew’s rich collections.
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