Vraiqu’sie: Shaping Willow, Shaping Creatures
25 September 2025, Written by Kerry-Jane Warner & Karen Le Roy Harris
In creating the sculptural creatures for our Vraiqu’sie film and exhibition, we chose to work with a material that was completely new to all of us: willow. We wanted the creatures to be light, portable, and wearable, while staying true to natural materials. But we began with very little knowledge of willow’s properties—so the process quickly became one of learning by doing.
The willow we used came from Alcindo Pinto, who grows and tends it at Samarès Manor in Jersey. From the start, we discovered that freshly cut willow, still moist with sap, was beautifully flexible and easy to shape. As it dried, however, it stiffened, and because we couldn’t work on the project daily, we needed to re-soak it. A willow soaking bag became essential. We also learnt that soaking too long is not helpful—after 24–48 hours, the willow becomes supple again, but any longer and it starts to rot.
For the horse and the seal, we started by making full-size drawings, fixing them to wooden boards, and placing nails as guides. This allowed us to bend the willow precisely around the shapes. We then tied several of these bent pieces together with willow circles, gradually building up a three-dimensional framework. For the horse’s head, we looked to the archives for inspiration, especially the exquisitely sensitive studies of cart horses by Jersey artist Edmund Blampied, who captured the strength and dignity of the animals once used to pull vraicking carts. Enlarging one of his drawings gave us the outline for our own sculptural horse’s head. We repeated the same process to create the seal.
For the oystercatcher, hermit crab, cormorant, and vraicing cart wheel, we worked more directly from images, studying different angles and deciding which features to emphasise. The oystercatcher, for example, took shape with its closed wing and long beak extended as if scuttling along the seashore, while the cormorant became defined by its outstretched wings.
The vraicing cart wheel, although not a creature, felt just as important to represent. Its making became a very communal act: we first created the spokes, then began passing and wrapping willow around in a circle to form the rim of the wheel. As we worked, we sang s'èrsouv'nîn (Remember), a song Esther Rose Parkes had written for the project—threading music and making together in the same rhythm.
Working with willow and seaweed together also brought surprises. Our first attempt at the cormorant’s wings ended in disaster: once we placed wet seaweed on the willow frame, it soaked in like water, making the structure floppy until it collapsed. Karen bravely modelled the half-finished bird for a photograph that would become part of the Barreau Art Scholarship Centenary Exhibition—holding the sagging, seaweed-heavy frame in place. A real workout, but we got the image! Lesson learned: the seaweed must be fully dry before attaching it.
Despite the challenges, willow has felt like a fitting choice for Vraiqu’sie. It connects us to seasonal, rural craft traditions, requires patience and adaptability, and—like seaweed itself—reminds us how materials change with water, time, and care.
Vraiqu’sie is a collaboration between cross disciplinary artists: Karen Le Roy Harris, Margarida Lourenco Olivier, Natasha Dettman, Esther Rose Parkes, Kerry-Jane Warner and Blessed Ndlovu. Learn more about the Vraiqu’sie project here.
Vraiqu'sie is produced by The Moving Arts Collective and is made possible through the support of the Barreau Art Scholarship award from Société Jersiaise, The Jersey Community Foundation with funds from the Channel Islands Lottery and the Government of Jersey - Creative Island Partnership. With support in kind from the Aspiring Jersey Island Geopark and Jersey Heritage.
