Hanna Van Aelst
When I first started down the rabbit hole of discovering and learning about willow and basket weaving, one of the very first people I found in that interconnected set of webs was Hanna van Aelst. A basket maker, living, farming willow, and weaving off grid in Ireland, Hanna was incredibly generous with her knowledge about all of those things. She quickly became a best friend (without knowing it, mind you), keeping me company while I pursued planting my own willow.
While willow production and use is starting to get a foothold in the States again, when I started being interested there was next to no American information readily available. Ag schools offered published articles about willow as a great biofuel crop. There was a decent amount of information about using it to shore up river and stream banks. I could find willow farming manuals from the 1800’s—which were great but limited. But there was Hanna, like a willow angel, speaking to me through my laptop from across the Atlantic and time about all the things I was most curious about.
I kind of hope she never reads this. We know each other now. But what a godsend—not only because she shared how to plant willow in great detail, including her favorite varieties (which is both helpful and not since we’re growing on different continents in very different climates), and how to weave a simple small round basket, but also because she is such a lovely, calm, and creative human being. I’m a super fan.
Would it make her uncomfortable to know how much I love her from afar? If she knew there were times when sleep wouldn’t come with all the worry and I would pull up videos on my phone with headphones and let her voice and calm lull me to sleep, all those lovely Irish willows blowing in the wind beneath gray-bellied sky’s? Like if I’m ever lucky enough to go to Ireland and take a class from her in person, if/when we shake hands, I will almost assuredly faint to the ground with a case of the vapors like some frail, corseted Victorian lady.
But when I discovered her, we were in the height of the Covid pandemic. I was suffering through digital kindergarten with my tiny son. We were worried about everything. We were wearing masks. Going to the grocery store to shop felt like a very real and frightening risk. We were infinitely grateful that we had a big farm to escape to and to roam around so very freely in a way, before Covid, we had always taken for granted. All that space with so few breathing mouths. *Sigh.
And so, to say I was on edge, like everyone was on edge, is obviously an understatement. I hope never to feel that level of hourly anxiety again in my life. But finding Hanna’s videos on YouTube. . . Her beautiful accent, her daughter’s beautiful music as soundtrack while she meandered through her lush Irish homestead? It was like I was able to take a deep breath and relax into her knowledge and life during a time when taking a deep breath felt, quite literally, life threatening.
I am therefore not in anyway subjective about how amazing Hanna is. If you try to say an unkind word about her, I would fight you.
But if you are just starting out in willow—growing, weaving—Hanna is one of the very best places to start to get information. If you get obsessed with willow like I did, she has incredibly detailed videos available to purchase and even those are incredibly generous. She keeps adding to them without charge? This is weird for an American where we expect everything to be monetized, but I bought the round basket course, and a few months later, she added a few new projects to courses I’d already paid for. Lovely.
Additionally, I am now part of a group she runs of her students who meet once a month on zoom to just talk like big giant nerds about all things willow. I look forward to it every month.
If you’re thinking about loving willow, you should look her up on YouTube or start here:
You will not be sorry.
