Me(in a home made Fielder dress-Merchant and Mills pattern)and my wares two of which are forming part of the Baskets of the British Isles installation at The New craftsmen in Mayfair.The eel hive that I am holding and a white willow cob used for potato harvesting.

Rush Flaggon Baskets as carried by these late 19th Century turf cutters from Wicken and Burwell. My modern homage to their beautiful functional docky/lunch baskets. Plaited Cambridgeshire Rushes I harvested close to Ely last year that were then stitched together to form a spiralling vessel with a lid. Leather strap handles were stitched onto the main body of the basket and threaded through the lid to make it secure; useful for keeping insects out if you were carrying your food and drink for the day when out in the fen cutting peat for burning.The name flaggon basket refers to not a measure of ale but I think the flag Iris leaves that these baskets were also sometimes woven in.