15.05.19. Maker’s home, Derbyshire

Sculptor Laura Ellen Bacon weaves extraordinary structures out of willow. Her work has been shown in venues such as the Saatchi Gallery, Chatsworth, New Art Centre, Somerset House, Sudeley Castle (for Sotheby’s) and Blackwell – The Arts and Crafts House in Cumbria.

Meanwhile, in 2017 she was a finalist of the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize at the V&A and was selected for Jerwood Contemporary Makers in 2010.

In this episode she talks about growing up on a fruit farm in Derbyshire; her childhood obsession with building a two-storey tree house; her fear of failure; her interest in form rather than material; and why she has never woven a basket. We also discover how her work has inspired a new piece of orchestral music, written by Helen Grime and performed at the Barbican by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Find out more about Laura Ellen Bacon

Don’t Let Go was created from Dicky Meadows willow at the University of Warwick. Image: Michelle Tennison.

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Inundation was an installation at Ruthin Craft Centre in 2014. Image: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd.

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