Interwoven - Why Craft, Heritage, and Collaboration Matter More Than Ever

On St David’s Day we celebrate Welsh culture and identity, not only through familiar symbols and traditions but through the living practices that continue to shape our communities. Interwoven is one such project, a collaborative exploration of Welsh craft, heritage, and place‑based making. By bringing students, researchers, and professional makers together, the project highlights how craft remains a vital expression of cultural resilience, creativity, and belonging.

This article by University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Swansea College of Art senior lecturer Catherine Brown, a maker and long‑standing advocate for craft education, offers an intimate insight into the project’s process and purpose, capturing how weaving, heritage materials, and interdisciplinary collaboration come together in meaningful and often unexpected ways. Catherine’s perspective not only grounds the project in lived experience but also illuminates why the act of making, and the stories embedded within it, continue to matter in contemporary Wales.

Interwoven - Why Craft, Heritage, and Collaboration Matter More Than Ever

“The title Interwoven could not be more fitting for this research project. It speaks not only of the literal weaving and basketmaking techniques we have explored, but also of the metaphorical weaving together of disciplines, experiences, and perspectives. What has unfolded is a genuinely collaborative and interdisciplinary engagement. 

An interconnection of Art and Design with Anthropology and Psychology with each strand enriching the others. At its core and the common link in this project is the lived experiences that emerge through making, handling materials, and responding to the environments in which those materials exist.

As a maker and long-standing advocate for craft education, I embraced this project with enthusiasm. I knew that both students and staff would not only love the process of learning basketmaking, but also appreciate the deep local history and heritage embedded in this ancient craft. 

Working with the research team has provided students with first‑hand insight into how research is conducted, and they have become active participants in the phenomenological data collected through journals and voice recordings. Their reflections on material, process, and place already show how weaving is beginning to influence their own practice and creative thinking.

But collaboration in this project reaches far beyond academic staff working across UWTSD Institutes. One of our key aims has been to design and make a seaweed basket for Car Y Mor, a seaweed company in Pembrokeshire. They have shown a keen interest in reviving traditional basket forms as sustainable alternatives to plastic collection bags. 

Historically, such baskets were made from local willow and hazel and replaced only when worn out. Our students have followed this lineage directly, visiting willow and hazel coppices, learning about cultivation, harvesting, and storing, and, under the guidance of professional Basketmaker Clare Ravera, have been developing the technical skill of weaving with these materials.

For me, however, the significance of this project extends further still. In our rapidly digitising world, the act of learning a craft of making with one’s own hands has become not just appealing, but necessary. 

In the UWTSD Arts and Media department, heritage crafts hold a vital place. Our Stained Glass apprenticeship continues to grow, and our Design Crafts programmes at UG and PG levels attract students eager to work directly with materials and cultivate embodied knowledge. Making is not simply a technical act, it is a way of knowing, of grounding ourselves, of re‑engaging with the physical world as digital environments accelerate around us.

This brings us to a crucial question. As Car Y Mor collaborates with our students to design a sustainable seaweed basket, who will make them? These baskets, unlike plastic, will need to be remade and renewed more frequently. 

Historically, social groups such as the local Institute for the Blind wove baskets for community use, their work supporting industries like cockle picking and seaweed collecting. In the chaos of today’s digital economy, could there again be a meaningful place for slow, purposeful, community‑driven craft production? Could making become not only an economic activity but a social and cultural one, reconnecting people with heritage, materials, and each other?

Ultimately, our intention is to showcase these many interwoven strands through an exhibition, celebrating Welsh heritage, specifically Welsh women’s heritage, the technical and creative craft skills within our community, and the student work that has flourished as a result of this project. Interwoven is more than a title, it is a statement of belief in the value of craft, collaboration, and the human need to make.”

Project Details

Interwoven is led by the UNESCO MOST BRIDGES Coalition, as the main research partner delivering the research within the AHRC project Coastal TALES, Telling Adaptation, Living Environmental Stories for Coastal Resilience. This work is supported by UWTSD Catalyst Funding.

Clare Ravera is a nationally renowned basket maker and a selected member of the Maker’s guild Wales as well as a yeoman member of the Worshipful Company of Basketmaking. 

Photo credit: Shellie Holden

Further Information

Rebecca Davies

Executive Press and Media Relations Officer    
Corporate Communications and PR    
Email: rebecca.davies@uwtsd.ac.uk    
Phone: 07384 467071