We are now taking orders for willow christmas light up angels
how is the COVID 19 affecting our business
This current situation regarding the corona virus is bizzare and frightening.there are worrys about our health and all of our financial situation.We have had all our shows cancelled where we rely on seling baskets and handing out leaflets for our coffins,and taking a coffin on tour to show the visitors to the shows what we do.
Also we had to cancel all our workshops much to the dissapointment of all our students.So our income for the basket sales and workshops has been non existant,we have had a few coffin orders come in which has kept the wolf from the door,and managed to do a few jobs where we have bartered or done skillswaps which we love doing that kind of trade,
One good thing about the current situation and i can speak for most of us is that we have had extra time to focus on getting things done around the home regarding improvements,and we have started up a small market garden and am going to grow flowers for funerals to add to our coffins,
in the meantime we here at cradle to grave are learning new designs of weaving our baskets,and have time to play and experiment with willow,make stock for when ever the shows will return ,and keeping healthy and happy
biodegradable coffins
It is a worrying and distressing time for the country at the moment,the goverment has released a list of new conditions A full list of the measures have been introduced:
Stopping coffin bearing which will be replaced with a hydraulic trolley
Removing hymn books and playing hymns from a television screen
Closing the chapel doors straight after committal to prevent touching of the coffin at the end of the service
Encouraging families to reduce the number of people attending services
Removing some seating to allow chairs to be spread further apart
Asking people to leave paperwork in a postbox rather than come into the office
Bookings being taken no more than two weeks ahead
Prohibiting anyone self-isolating, or who has a cough, fever or shortness of breath from entering any of the buildings
Encouraging people over 70 or anyone with underlying health conditions to not attend services
Encouraging mourners who aren't immediate family or friends to watch the service via the internet
homegrown willow coffin
we have proudly just made our first coffin from homegrown dicky meadows and harrisons purple willow,along with a bit of musgrove willows buff willow.we like to use buff willow in constructing the frame and uprights,wailing and boarders of our coffins because where the bark has been removed by the boiling and stripping process,the willow without bark is less likely to slip and be unstable whereas a whole coffin made with willow with the bark on could be a bit unstable,what i mean by that is that the coffin wont fall apart,or anything like that,its just a wee bit sturdier using buff or white for uprights etc.
so we like to use the barked willow for bannding around the middle .the willow takes 3 years to be fully established to use but we have used our 2nd years crop as it has been abundant this year,
It is very satisfying to be able to provide our own materials for our products,we hope to grow ash and hazel in the next few years for the coffin and basketmaking
