Throughout all of Rachel’s work, she has utilised a range of hand weaving techniques to create sculptures, often taking inspiration from the natural world and the geometric patterns that can be found there.

In 2012 Rachel began her research looking if she could work other materials in the same manner as willow with an emphasis on resistant materials.

The answer was found in wax, a material that can be blended to have specific qualities and is used within Lost Wax Casting. Using the skills of a British wax refinery they created a wax which can withstand hand weaving techniques and that burns away cleanly to be used in the direct lost wax method of bronze casting. 

In 2013 she successfully produced the first large scale cast spherical bronze with the help of Arts Council. It was showcased at the 100th Chelsea Flower show then at the University of Leicester’s Botanical Gardens and now proudly sits within the World Heritage Site, the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, the birth place of the Industrial Revolution.

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Change of Heart, University of Leicester 2014

Curated by Almuth Tebbenhoff FRBS

Rachel Carter has won widespread acclaim for her woven works in willow, using the tree’s flexible withies to build up geometric shapes layer by layer. She is a regular exhibitor at the annual Chelsea Flower Show where the natural, hand-made quality of her work is warmly embraced. Although  her woven creations have somewhat limited life span compared with works in more durable materials such as bronze or stone, this ephemeral quality has not deterred collectors. Most see it as an important part of the work - an echo of the universal rhythm of life and death to which ultimately everything must conform. However, driven by a technical curiosity towards materials, Carter recently began working with the renowned Pangolin bronze foundry in Chalford, Gloucestershire with a view to exploring the viability of translating her willow technique into bronze. The Pangolin team has yet to encounter a challenge it cannot meet, as Carter’s shimmering Bronze Grand Sphere (2013) is bountiful proof. This woven bronze sphere marks a significant moment in the development of Carter’s working method, although she will continue to weave in willow.

Text taken from Change of Heart exhibition brochure