
The Tressages Pas Sages Studio
The Tressages Pas Sages workshop is a creative space dedicated to contemporary basketwork.
Founded by Alexandra Ferdinande, it welcomes tailor-made projects, research and collaborations, always guided by natural materials and the poetry of artisanal gesture.
The workshop is based in France, between Lyon, Vienne, and Saint-Étienne. Its central location fosters links with urban centers, while remaining anchored in a rural area, in the heart of the Pilat Regional Natural Park in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
The Tressages Pas Sages workshop is a place where materials come to life. Each strand of wicker is worked with respect and precision, in a constant search for beauty and innovation. The creative space, bathed in light, becomes a laboratory for experimentation and a refuge for ancestral gestures. The workshop hosts tailor-made projects for architects and decorators, prototypes that pave the way for new forms, and workshops to transmit living know-how. Here, nature inspires every gesture: the rhythm of the weaving evokes the wind in the foliage, the flow of water in the river, the quiet strength of the roots. The workshop is part of a sustainable approach, favoring natural materials and respectful processes. It becomes a meeting place between tradition and contemporary design, between craftsmanship and innovation. Each creation that emerges bears the imprint of a place inhabited by poetry, a space where the hand and the material dialogue with sincerity.
At the origin of Tressages Pas Sages, in 2013, I started my basket weaving business in Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez, in the Loire, labeled one of the "most beautiful villages in France". It was there that I set up my first workshop, within the walls of a charterhouse that had become a village, in the heart of a historic site.
After training with basket makers in their workshops, I followed the CAP basketry courses with the GRETA in Lyon and obtained the Professional Aptitude Certificate in basketry (CAP) in 2014.


Since 2019, I have set up my art studio in the historic district of Pélussin, in Virieu, in the heart of the Pilat Regional Natural Park, in the Rhône-Alpes region.
I share my studio with Florence Lemoine , glassblower, and Adeline Contreras , visual artist. The studio is open by appointment.
I'm delighted to be able to share my workshop with other professionals today. Sharing experiences and pooling resources are valuable assets when you work in a solitary profession.
In my art studio, I store my raw materials along the stone walls. I buy bundles of wicker from French wicker growers and gather plants throughout the seasons (bamboo, rush, ivy, bramble, chestnut, twisted willow, dogwood, etc.).


Basketry is a craft imbued with ecological values: French basket makers transform wicker grown in France. To weave a basketwork object, all you need is a light tool and a water source to soak the wicker, without any products or machinery.
Basket makers collect plant material from their immediate environment and transform it with very light tools, barehanded, equipped with pruning shears and a billhook, in direct contact with the material. I am proud to practice this profession with a neutral ecological impact: an artistic profession in tune with my time and my relationship with the world.





