Idoia Cuesta: weaving regeneration into matter

CRAFT

3 Oct

Handmade baskets have always been more than objects of storage. They are vessels of continuity, where strands of natural fibre carry the traces of hands, seasons and places. Few contemporary makers probe this depth as consistently as Idoia Cuesta, whose basketry transforms from functional craft into a language of care, memory and regeneration.

For Cuesta, weaving is not a matter of following patterns but of entering into dialogue with material. Chestnut, willow, wool and other fibres are never neutral resources; each carries an identity — the resilience of the tree it comes from, the rhythm of its growth, the atmosphere of its landscape. “In my work, I am guided above all by the materials,” she says. “Their behaviour, their response when handled, and what they transmit through touch. I love to confront them and play with them as a way of expression.”

Her studio sits within the Terras do Miño Biosphere Reserve, in Galicia (Spain), a landscape of rivers, forests and wetlands. It is not only a backdrop but a collaborator, shaping her sensitivity to cycles of growth and decay, and teaching her to work within the limits of what the land offers. This relationship gives her work its quiet criticality: basketry here is not a nostalgic gesture, but an argument for slowing down, paying attention, and valuing matter for what it is.

In Cuesta’s hands, raw materials resist anonymity. A strip of chestnut bends with memory; willow reveals its tensile strength; wool holds warmth even as it is reshaped. Instead of erasing their origins, her weaving lets these qualities remain visible. The result is a body of work less designed than revealed — pieces that show how material itself can guide form, rhythm and meaning.

Her practice spans sculptural vessels, functional objects and collaborations with fashion, architecture and interior design. At their core, these works insist that tradition and contemporaneity are not opposites but companions. By reinterpreting ancestral techniques through a modern vocabulary, Cuesta demonstrates how craft can be both a preservation of knowledge and a space for innovation.

Recognition such as Spain’s National Craft Award (2014) and the Galicia Craft Award (2021) punctuates her career, but her significance lies beyond accolades. Her work challenges how we view craft itself — not as a secondary art form or a relic of the past, but as a living practice capable of holding cultural memory while also addressing urgent questions of material, identity and ecology.

“In my work, I am guided above all by the materials,” she says. “Their behaviour, their response when handled, and what they transmit through touch. I love to confront them and play with them as a way of expression.”

— Idoia Cuesta