Simon Cooper · The Bumbling BasketeerSimon Cooper is the only oak swill basket maker left in Scotland. He works from a single room in Crieff, splitting coppiced oak with a cleaver, soaking the strips, weaving them while still wet, the same way the form has been built for four hundred years.
Simon Cooper is the only oak swill basket maker left in Scotland. He works from a single room in Crieff, splitting coppiced oak with a cleaver, soaking the strips, weaving them while still wet, the same way the form has been built for four hundred years.
The turkey-wing form, wide at the head and narrowing to a tail, is the classic bench-brush silhouette. Simon binds the bristles by hand in coloured nylon cord; choose a cotton strap or upgrade to red deer oak bark tanned leather.
Tampico is a natural plant fibre drawn from Mexican Agave and Yucca. The bristle is stiff enough to clear dust and crumb but softer than the arenga alternative, which makes it the right choice for surfaces that don't want abrasion.
The brush is made to hang. The strap is for the hook. The kitchen, the workshop, the garden shed: wherever a brush belongs in plain sight.
When he isn't binding brushes, Simon weaves oak swill baskets in the same workshop. He is the only person left in Scotland still making them.
The turkey-wing form, wide at the head and narrowing to a tail, is the classic bench-brush silhouette. Simon binds the bristles by hand in coloured nylon cord; choose a cotton strap or upgrade to red deer oak bark tanned leather.
Tampico is a natural plant fibre drawn from Mexican Agave and Yucca. The bristle is stiff enough to clear dust and crumb but softer than the arenga alternative, which makes it the right choice for surfaces that don't want abrasion.
The brush is made to hang. The strap is for the hook. The kitchen, the workshop, the garden shed: wherever a brush belongs in plain sight.
When he isn't binding brushes, Simon weaves oak swill baskets in the same workshop. He is the only person left in Scotland still making them.
