"Beyond Baskets," A Spring Magazine Feature

New England Home Magazine - Connecticut Spring 2014, pages 26-29

           

Inspired by a Montana Landscape

The idea for this basket started with looking at the colors in a friend's photo and a postcard of a dried, grass meadow in Yosemite. I was intrigued by the transitions from peach to indigo, and immersed myself in the colors and clouds. I played with the dyed reed as a painter would play with paint, and used more than 15 dye lots, a few of which were decades old.

As I wove, I started thinking about about the darkening sky, and stars. The stars would be woven into a dark, inner basket. Weaving a double-walled construction seemed to be the solution. People ask if I design each basket before I begin, here was a case where the whole concept changed mid basket. (A photo of the "stars" is on my website.)

As I wove a not-quite-big-dipper constellation into the inner basket, I remembered a sci-fi movie I saw where a woman woke up one morning and saw two suns in the sky and realized that she wasn't home anymore. While my hands are busy weaving, my head is free to indulge in making up stories. All I need is an idea to start with, then the curiosity, patience and perseverance to make it happen.

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The title for this basket is "An Alternate Starry Night." For more information and a photo looking into the basket, click here. The basket measures 10.5" x 10.5"

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Last year I wove a basket inspired by a painting by Leslie Baker.

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Here is the other basket inspired by the same landscape in different weather. The soft colors were the inspiration. (Having Kitt show up and be a part of the photo, was a bonus.)

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"High Meadows" a double-walled basket for the Fuller Craft Museum

After almost a year of thinking about, sketching, and weaving mock-ups, I have finished the commission awarded me by the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA. The challenge was to create a basket over and beyond what I had done before, yet exemplify the best of what I am known for.

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The decision was to weave a double-walled construction, using both tapestry and "hairy" techniques to create the design. There were many firsts to this piece. The most significant was that this basket was woven off center so that it would sit at an angle. Also new for this basket was the use of short "hairy" pieces in the inner basket. (Usually, I weave this technique on the entire outer surface of a basket, and not just in small areas.)

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The idea for this basket was inspired by the the linear elements of cultivated fields off-set by the wild outcroppings I saw in a Google map. The current basket has taken the idea of nature's geography one step further, into stylized texture. The chartreuse "field" (in the inner basket) holds the promise of spring growth. I was thinking of wild mustangs, and reindeer left to roam free for the summer. (The Google map was of Montana where I'd read about mustang gatherings and I'd been thinking about walking with reindeer we saw in the mountains in Norway last summer.) Weaving this basket was a way to honor the animal spirit and natural beauty I love.

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By clicking on this link, you will see twenty photographs documenting the basket's progression. I have written detailed captions for each photo explaining the steps. The basket is 12" tall on the high side, 8.5" on the short side and is 19" in diameter. The material is dyed rattan reed with encaustic medium. (and yes, marbles were added at the last minute for weight, interest and sound.)

Photos of the finished basket coming soon!

Tonight, I wove together the inner and outer baskets for the Fuller commission. It's taken me a lot longer than I expected, but I'm really pleased. I still have some work to do before I add the encaustic medium to it, but I wanted to invite anyone reading this to come back (at the end of the week) to see photos of the finished basket.

The museum commission is in the works!

After a few months of sketching out design ideas and weaving small maquettes, I started work on the commission for the Fuller Craft Museum's permanent collection. They want their piece to be a personal statement representing and topping off, the work I've done to date. I'm weaving a sculptural, graphic, double-walled construction which will incorporate my "hairy" technique in the inner basket. The above photos are details of the basket. (I enjoy photographing these almost as much as I love weaving/creating/problem-solving the actual baskets.)

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Double-wall construction baskets are woven in two sections, an outer basket and an inner basket. I have finished most of the weaving/work on the outer basket, though I may rework the colors, or alter their placement as the inner basket design evolves. Working photos of the outer basket are posted here. More photos will follow as I work on the inner basket.

July Double-Wall

In this basket I've used encaustic medium (a combination of wax and resin) melted into the surface of the basket which adds a richer look to the color, actual strength and a more tactile feel to the basket. The basket doesn't have a flat bottom (on purpose) so it will sit slightly off center. The outer basket has a gentle bowl form. Just before joining the inside and outside baskets together at the outer edge, I inserted glass marbles, which will roll around inside adding sound and weight to the basket, as it is handled.