Christopher Oakey (Born 1974) British, Life Size Willow Woven Wicker Bear. Over six feet tall, an incredibly intricate life sized wicker bear made of woven willow threads standing upright, arms slightly raised. Willow, a type of tree in the poplar family, is particularly adept for wicker weaving because of the high level of moisture it retains, making the shape it forms extremely rigid once it dries. 

Size: 29 x 39 x 73 in. 

#5156 . 

Christopher Oakley was born in Cheltenham, England in 1974. He studied to become a Primary School teacher, first working in America in his early 20s. While living in Pennsylvania in 1998 he had a close encounter with a black bear that had a lasting impact on him, leading to life-long interest in nature and wilderness survival. He returned to his hometown in 2000 and spent the next decade and a half working in the local curriculum. During this time he occasionally explored sculpture, a passion he had held since his A-levels. In 2015 he suggested offering outdoor classes at a local school and spent the next five years teaching students in wide open spaces, eventually starting his own company Oakey Bear Outdoor Learning, Ltd., which he named partially for the bear encounter in his youth. Sadly, within a few months of starting his own school COVID-19 appeared, and the lockdown led to the dissolution of the company before it had barely gotten off the ground. Unemployed and without any other prospects, Oakley decided to focus on sculpture, and constructed his first piece, an enormous life-sized “self portrait,” by wrapping himself in chicken wire and then weaving branches into the frame. This first attempt, named “Onion Head” by his two children, was swiftly followed by his first foray into willow, which became his preferred medium after his next construction, a life-sized bear in the likeness of A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. Over the past few years his range has expanded enormously, producing hundreds of large animal wicker sculptures that now adorn estates all over England and abroad, including a permanent sculpture trail for Fonmon Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan. Oakley continues to teach outdoors as well, grateful to be able to divide his time between his first career and his first passion.