Sculpture and basketry at Snape Maltings

 

The sculptors and basket makers that will be joining us for our first exhitibtion of the year at the wonderful Snape Maltings are: 

 

Basketmaker Lin Carter approaches her craft with joyful urgency. She makes because she loves making, seeing herself as part of a long tradition that honours the past while contributing to the future of basketry. Trained in both traditional and contemporary techniques, Lin works with natural materials including willow she has grown herself and rush gathered from Suffolk rivers. From these she weaves hats, vessels and sculptural forms that tell stories through their materials, tools and origins. Her work celebrates heritage craft while allowing space for experimentation and personal expression. 

 

Cindy Gidney creates woven vessels using soft natural fibres and coiling techniques reminiscent of ancient basketry traditions, yet her pieces embody a distinctly contemporary aesthetic. Using slow, contemplative stitching to secure coiled forms, Cindy allows shapes to emerge intuitively through the careful manipulation of fibres. With a background in fashion, textiles and interiors, and coming from a long line of seamstresses, sewing and making have always been part of her life. Her inspiration comes from nature and childhood memories of collecting treasures from the beach and garden. Organic forms such as the spiral whorls of a gastropod shell echo through her work, where texture, simplicity and layered surfaces create quiet, thoughtful vessels. 

Heidi McEvoy-Swift describes her practice as “sewn sculpture”. Working with salvaged theatrical textiles and organic materials gathered from woodland and coastline, she creates unique vessels and three-dimensional wall pieces that are entirely sustainable. Each work is hand-stitched using intuitive techniques such as blanket stitch and tying methods that allow forms to emerge naturally from the character of the materials themselves. By bringing together the opulence of discarded costume fabrics with the quiet rawness of natural elements, Heidi’s work explores our perceptions of value, what we consider precious, disposable or beautiful. Heidi will be demonstrating her distinctive sewn-sculpture techniques during the Places Weekend from 11th–12th April. 

 

Anne Schwegmann-Fielding transforms broken tableware, jewellery and glass into vibrant mosaic sculptures. At the heart of her practice is the transformation of the discarded into something magical and new. Meticulously cut fragments of chipped British tableware are combined with broken jewellery and pieces of car windscreen glass to create richly textured contemporary sculptures. Familiar ceramic patterns including the iconic Willow Pattern and pieces by historic makers such as Alfred Meakin are reimagined within colourful mosaics. Anne will be demonstrating her techniques at Snape over the Places weekend from 11th-12th April. 

 

Nicci Dedman produces intricate three-dimensional sculptures from repurposed steel wire, crafting delicate yet resilient forms inspired by local flora and fauna. Drawing on a background in jewellery, Nicci now focuses on sculpture, creating complex pieces entirely from wire without soldering or welding. Working from her home on the Suffolk border, she manipulates recycled steel wire into finely detailed structures that capture both fragility and strength. Her fascination with the versatility of wire has also led her to explore larger-scale forms, including wire-upholstered outdoor furniture exhibited across East Anglia. The resulting works are both intricate and expressive, celebrating the possibilities of a simple material. 

 

This exhibition promises a rich and varied celebration of sculptural craft, where reclaimed materials, natural fibres and inventive processes meet within the inspiring surroundings of Snape Maltings. With the gentle flow of the River Alde beside it, the setting provides the perfect backdrop for these remarkable makers.