Talk and Weave with Anna Pope - Session 1
Anna Pope will speak about building a resilient and sustainable practice
In this session, maker Anna Pope will talk about her practice, beginning with her work as a jeweller and then exploring her move towards community-based projects focused on the threatened traditional craft and heritage of crab and lobster traps, known as withy pots (Jewelwithy in 2016 and WithyLore in collaboration with Storylines CIC in 2025).
Anna will reflect on her work collaborating with museums, archives and community groups, exploring how her practice has changed through this expansion into broader social and heritage contexts – and how this can help build a more resilient and sustainable practice.
Throughout the session, Anna will lead a weaving activity, offering a chance for participants make while listening, and also providing a practical demonstration of the work she will be speaking about.
Anna will be leading another session at the Museum of Cornish Life on 29th June. You do not need to attend both sessions, but you are most welcome to if they are both of interest.
This workshop is part of Built to Last: practical ways to sustain a creative practice - a series of workshops designed to help artists and creatives build a practice that is personally and financially sustainable. Led by local artists and people working in creative and cultural organisations, the sessions will explore how to apply creative skills to a broad range of public, social and heritage contexts – building resilience through diversifying how you work without compromising your fundamental focus or motivation. We are grateful to The Goldsmiths' Foundation for supporting this programme.
About Anna Pope
Anna Pope is a Cornwall-based maker and educator with over a decade of experience specialising in jewellery design and heritage crafts. From her studio in Porthleven and home in Helston, she creates work deeply inspired by the natural world and traditional techniques, particularly the endangered craft of withy pot making and basketry. Through her creative workshops for adults and children, as well as her community-led art projects, Anna is dedicated to documenting the stories of traditional craftsmanship and fostering a meaningful connection between people, place, and the environment.
