Page 22 - Rooftops Summer 2019
P. 22

                 A 15 metre German World War 1 U-boat
This was built on Harwich beach to commemorate 100 years since the mass surrender of 160 German U-boats coming into Harwich in November 1918, stretching out in a line two miles long.
I was approached by the Harwich Haven History Surrender and Sanctuary project. To get an idea of a U-boat, I went down to Chatham Docks and had a guided tour on one, then researched through some of their records on World War 1 German U-boats. The project took about four weeks to build using some Somerset willow and some willow from a grower in Essex. Harwich beach had some really interesting people coming along to insert some withies into the structure and chat about their past relatives that were posted there on the ships during that period of time.
The structure is completely willow so is able to decompose naturally without creating any pollution. I created holes in the back and the conning tower so that children could crawl into it. The local schools in Dovercourt were involved too, I went into schools and the children made flags, an anchor, a periscope and chains out of willow, and rope from rush to hang the flags from. It was a lovely project to be involved with.
Life size Stegosaurus
I made this for the RHS Hyde Hall Gardens last year. They had various artists make them for each of their gardens.
It was installed as part of a dinosaur trail in which the children had to find items such as dinosaur eggs, a bit of dinosaur excavation and Jurassic plant hunting.
I got all the measurements for construction at the Natural History Museum then had an excellent metalwork man construct the frame for me. It took about four weeks to weave and the willow was grown in Somerset.
The metalwork was made by Graham Myers of Underwoodengineering@gmail.com
 22
  Weaving a tale
Essex willow artist Deb Hart talks us through her remarkable creations
 






















































































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