Hello there!
I am Lauren Ó Droma, a basket maker learning from Hanna Van Aelst up in her workshop on the foothills of Keeper Hill. I live nestled in her beautiful willow garden in a wattle and daub cabin we built with my husband Ian. All my offerings on here are made and inspired by Hanna’s teachings, my love for the land, and guided by my curiosities on how to be a guardian of life.

I was introduced to willow a few years back by my dear friend Cha Cha, whose reverence for the craft, land and liberation is contagious. When they showed me how to weave my first basket out of willow growing near our home on the banks of the Cuyama river, I was absolutely enchanted. The initial childlike clumsiness in my hands turned to an intuitive knowing of the rhythm and pattern of the weave. It felt like a remembrance, a kind of bone marrow knowing, that I and all humans belong to the earth and can live here in a way that feeds life.

The future has an ancient heart.

I find liberation in practicing a craft that has been in relationship with all humans for over 10,000 years. A craft that no machine can replicate. A craft that can connect us to the land and kin we find all around us. From straw in a field to rushes in the river to willow growing by the stream's edges, there is an invitation to be in relationship, to tend to these places and create beauty.