The willow dome
Creating a living sculpture
Willow is a wonderful plant. It produces very flexible, straight ‘rods’ that will grow quite easily when pushed into the ground – even without roots!
Creating a living sculpture is very simple. ‘Plant’ some rods in the ground in your desired shape (a dome, a tunnel or whatever your imagination allows) and hold them together by weaving other pieces of willow around the structure. Those rods planted in the ground will grow, while those that are used to hold the shape will eventually rot away and be replaced by the new shoots when the annual maintenance (which is always needed) is carried out.
In March 1998, the children from the school helped out to create a dome of about 4 metres in diameter. The willow was harvested from Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland’s tree nursery (where one of the volunteers worked).
Using a crowbar, holes were created that allowed the willow rods (about 3-4cm in diameter at the base) to be pushed 50cm into the ground. When about 24 had formed the circle, they were drawn together and tied at the top with string as a temporary measure.
Now the children could help… with a little assistance, they helped to weave the horizontal rods in and out of the uprights (always finishing on the inside). More and more of these were added until the whole structure was secure and the string at the top could be untied.