Frodsham Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We will be profiling some of these local businesses and organisations over the coming weeks in a feature called 'Up Close in Frodsham'.

Today we caught up with Sarah Gallagher-Hayes, a local artist who runs Twigtwisters willow sculpture workshops in Dunham-on-the-Hill.

Over the course of her successful career, Sarah has created a whole world of willow animals, people and things, as well as teaching others how to produce their very own 'Twigette' sculptures.

"I did a sculpture degree at Southampton University and did a lot of work in metal rod," Sarah tells me. "I played around with willow a bit during my degree and liked its organic, natural properties."

"Willow has a fluidity that can't be matched; it can twist and bend and turn to be reworked into whatever shape I desire. I am literally drawing with sticks."

"When I finished my degree I went on a basket-making course with some nuns (!) and off the back of that I got a commission from Kew Gardens in London."

For this, Sarah was asked to create a willow lion to represent Aslan in the Gardens' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe exhibition.

Since then, Sarah has created sculptures for city centres and private estates across the country, and has even had her work featured on the sets of 2019 movie Hellboy 3 and, perhaps more importantly, Hollyoaks!

More recently, Sarah produced as series of lizard sculptures for the new Madagascar zone at Chester Zoo. She also works with the Zoo's Education Team, helping to teach children about the importance of conservation projects for our most endangered species.

For the 75th anniversary of VE Day this year, Sarah was tasked with constructing a scene from the Second World War for Chester's Grosvenor Park. For this, she fashioned four wicker Spitfires and a lone soldier, standing pensively in front of giant 'VE' lettering.

Alongside these commissions, Sarah regularly exhibits her work at Chelsea flower show, RHS Hampton court, Tatton Park, Blenheim Palace and Chatsworth House, to name but a few.

As well as her personal projects and educational work, Sarah has been running her popular Twigtwisters willow weaving workshops for 24 years, guiding classes in the creation of their own Twigettes.

She began working from the Boshaw Centre in Dunham-on-the-Hill around four years ago, in which time she has helped her students bring to life a huge range of designs, from hares to dogs to dragonflies to life-size stags.

"It's really varied because I just let people run with their ideas," Sarah says. "There have been some odd requests but I try not to say no. It's all really good fun."

One person even made a human-size Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream, complete with the ass's head!

Sarah explains that even the hardest of figures can be achieved by working from some simple initial shapes.

"We start with a bit of drawing so that we know the shapes that we need to make. It will be a series of ovals and circles that are tied together. After we make this 'skeleton' we can fill it in," she says.

In this way, her fellow Twigette-makers are able to produce beautiful sculptures without using any wire or glue, making them a sustainable and natural art form.

Their wicker figures will then last for around eight years, and can be further preserved with linseed oil.

To find out more about Sarah's workshops you can visit her website or Facebook page.