Sue Skelly--Woven Cedarworks

 Moss-filled pillows with covers woven from Western Red Cedar bark strips from Sue Skelly

My heart jumped when I saw a photo of a hand-woven cedar pillow from Sue Skelly posted on the wonderful blog Seed Collector. Check out the tassels and fringe, also made of cedar. Incredible! Her work really appeals to my Pacific Northwest Tropics ethos. Sue lives on the Kitsap peninsula in Washington and makes all sorts of beautiful things from cedar recovered from cleared land as well as her own property. She's been doing this for many years, devising and perfecting her techniques as she goes. She also makes wattle fences inspired by those she saw in Cornwall but using the native cedar rather than the willow or hazel traditionally used there.

 Nest

''I'm still in on the fringes of the horticultural world and it is in fact how I came in through the back door with my cedar creations so many years ago. I had a landscape company in Seattle in the 80's.''

 Beaver Ball

 Woven Wall Hanging

 Blueshell Necklace

Sue's work has appeared in many galleries in Washington as well as publications like Martha Stewart and Sunset Magazine and she's done private and public commissions including a cedar fence at the Belleview Botanical Garden which I'm dying to see.

In addition to the practical and decorative items Sue makes of cedar such as baskets and fences, she's also a hard-core button collector and turns her finds into wonderful wearable art such as the shell necklace above. Dreamy.

I often visit my husband's family in Sue's neck of the woods and am hoping I might visit her some time too and see her at work.

All photos by Kathryn Keve and courtesy of Sue Skelly--thanks Sue!