Inspired by Norwegian Reality TV, I Made a Basket Entitled "Midnight Sun"

Once I have a basket design in my head or at least have an idea, I usually listen to books on CD while I weave, but this time I was glued to my computer. I had no idea that I was about to join 2.5 million Norwegians who were watching their public TV (according to ABC News).

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My cousin Per sent me the link to "Hurtigruten: Minute to Minute," a 134 hour documentary of what is called "The Worlds Most Beautiful Sea Voyage.” People have been traveling up the Norwegian coastline since 1893 and I was about to join this voyage from my kitchen! I followed the map as the ship as it travelled from Bergen, up the coast between islands, to the way-northern port of Kirkenes.

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As I worked on the basket, I saw what the 22 cameras saw, documenting the trip. The country had been alerted to the NRK project and all along the way, people cheered and waved flags from land and boats. Because the cruise ran during the longest days of the year, filming was possible 24 hours a day. They say in Norway that on June 21st it is so light that you can read the newspaper outside at midnight. My work schedule was such that it was often quite late over there, hence the rosy glow in the photos I caught off the computer:

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The ship passed Ålesund, a town known for it's dried and salted cod, “klippfisk.” (Here they're drying in the sun.)

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There were serene views of wave-washed rock and hazy, snow studded mountains.

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I watched and wove, on and off for 4 days, often just listening to the waves and sea.

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After a while I realized that the basket had taken on characteristics of the boat (notice the shape of the hull), the water colors, and the warm glow from the midnight sun on the landscape.

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The basket measures 14.75" x 13" and will be on exhibit at the Shaw Cramer Gallery this July.

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**With the exception of the basket shots, all the photos that appear above, were taken off the computer as screen shots courtesy of NRK's TV broadcast.

I'm a Color, Texture, Pattern Nerd

My sister and I were in Hawaii recently. One afternoon I paused to look at a small, showy garden, but it was this fresh, new shoot, that kept me there enthralled. The closer I looked, the more details I saw and the more interested I got. I lost myself in looking at the subtle colors and patterns. One day we took the road to Hana and stopped at the Ke'anae Arboretum. This was the highlight of the trip. There were Rainbow Eucalyptus trees, gingers, tree jasmines, bamboos and a favorite, a Blue Marble Tree with bright blue, one inch seeds.

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On the way to the airport, we had our only rain. The fuzzy light and soft colors appealed to me as much as the sun appealed to the sunburnt tourists we left behind.

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On the way home from Maui, I stopped in TX to visit a close friend and her husband. As part of my sight seeing tour in Amarillo, we went to Tri's Market. There, I was beside myself in the produce section! I know that I puzzled a few shoppers and employees by photographing the fruits and vegetables, from Daikon,Taro and Sugar Cane (pictured) to Dragon Fruit. These natural palettes and surfaces, and all the graphics they conjured in my head, created an excitement for me unparalleled by the finest art museums. Some could say that I'm easily entertained, but I'd respond that I feel all the richer for it.

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I am an artist not because of what I create, but because of how I look at the world. In exchange for opening my eyes and becoming vulnerable to the environment, I receive the best and worst of what's out there. I choose to delight in what I see; the colors soothe and inspire me, the textures intrigue me, and I see patterns forming everywhere. All together, they help me keep my balance when crowds get to be too much and the world starts to spin. (Emma and Kitt help as well, but in a different way.)

"Winter into Spring" (greens)

The colors this spring have been intense. I don't know if it's because winter seemed to last forever or if it's because I'm just noticing more. Some days I'm nearly breathless with the beauty. Every day something new blooms along the trails or in my garden. It's been very hard for me to stay inside to weave.

I was supposed to be working on a commission. I had double-dyed a very, dark grey that helped me focus, since I really wanted to work with it. (Sometimes its the colors of newly dyed reed that inspire a basket.) The shape I started to weave was too shallow for the commission, so I changed ideas. Here's what I made. In retrospect, I see the linear, neutral colors of winter accented with the fresh, green leaves of spring (with a little orange for interest).

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After 30 odd years of making baskets and many more of gardening, the idea that I can live a life weaving together the colors I see around me, me makes me pause and think. My life isn't perfect, and I'll probably never have a lot of money, but I appreciate that I have eyes that can see, hands that can make things, and an imagination that keeps me curious and motivated.

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And ... I share this time with Kitt and Emma.

Delayed Inspiration

What does this scarf have to do with my baskets? It's an example of how everything I look at feeds into the collected information I use for inspiration. I'll begin with saying that I'm drawn to stripes, from wallpaper to textiles. As I was working on my new striped basket I realized that it reminded me of something. I went upstairs and found this scarf. I'd bought it in Norway two summers ago.

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For this basket, I wanted to weave bold stripes in a just-dyed, dark grey reed. I needed an accent color and remembered one I had dyed after studying the colors in a photo of peeling birch bark. Unfortunately woven together, the series of natural colors I created looked like mud. Not all ideas pan out.

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I put that basket idea aside, but found that my favorite color, a warm neutral was what I needed to play off the cool grey. (The basket is 20" x 15".)

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One thing I enjoy about using rattan reed is how I can alternate between weaving flat and "hairy" textured baskets. I wanted to work on a flat surface and make a larger basket after having finished a small, very bright "hairy" basket. All this is in preparation for an upcoming craft show in Boston from March 25th to March 27th. For more information and directions you can click here.

Why I blog

This winter has felt very long. For weeks, a part of every day was spent shoveling snow or chipping ice. February came and went but the doldrums and cabin fever set in. Even Emma and Kitt seemed stressed. March is showing improvement. The need for burdensome layers of clothing is lessening as the amount of daily mud appears to increase, on the kitchen/studio floor.

Seemingly out of nowhere, ideas for new work have been flooding me. It's almost as if spring has loosened creative seeds and I can't work fast enough. It's a good thing too, since I have a fair in Boston at the end of the month. I've been posting process photos of a new basket to my Facebook fan page. The photo above is how it started. I'll be back shortly to write about the process. (The idea I wrote about earlier - inspired by birch bark, didn't work out the way I had envisioned it, but now I have lots of dyed reed and a vague idea for another basket.)

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So ... why this blog? Although I don't post often, I'm constantly trying to find words so I can share what goes into how and why I weave. I often tell people that words aren't my "media," so this is a place where I practice getting my thoughts out of my head into words. This is also a collection point for my other blogs. There's a new one where I've been collecting design sources called Pinterest, and a photo blog where I've been adding photos of Emma and Kitt, taken with my iPod. If you've read this far, I hope that you'll come back. I'll do my best to post more often.

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A New Year's Resolution and Shades of Winter

January 1st has come and gone, 2011 has begun. I don't like to make New Year's resolutions because they can be so disappointing if not kept. And, what if something more interesting presented itself? I approach starting a new basket the same way. Usually I have an idea before I start weaving, but I often modify it as I work. The shape may suggest a different pattern, or an unexpected color combination could set me off in a new direction, so I give myself permission to see where it will lead me. (My training was in ceramics, but I prefer the flexibility in weaving baskets.)

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After a busy fall and all the comings and goings of the holidays, I'm looking forward to a quiet January. The soft shades in this Bridgewater, CT lake and the clear colors in Sarah's photo from Chicago make me want to weave. I want to design something so that I can play with these color combinations.

A few days ago I came across this birch tree. The bark's natural beauty and complexity exceeds human design. It made me think about working in textured papers and fabric, but it also made me feel humble about calling myself an artist. I want to go back and study it in different light and marvel at it's beauty. It's hard to explain, but framing these photos and then being able to appreciate all the layers and patterns in a two dimensional format is more exciting to me than going to most of the museums I've ever been to.

Contemplating the colors in the above seascapes touches me emotionally, and being able to appreciate the textures in this bark reminds me I am but a small part of something greater. As an artist and naturalist, I will try to share and preserve the beauty of what I see around me. This will be my New Year's resolution.

Fall Colors and Collecting Acorn Caps

The fall colors weren't as showy as in some years, but what they lacked in brilliance they made up for in subtlety. The sun on this chartreuse spirea surprised me one day on the way to the greenhouse. By the time I came back with the camera, the sun had gone away. The light had softened, but the leaves glowed. The bush is one of the first to bloom in the spring with tiny, white, fragrant flowers, and this year it was the last to show color.

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All fall, I collected acorn caps. I felt like I did when I was a kid looking for sea shells on the beach in Florida. A few caps were nearly flat, others were deep and vessel shaped. Each one was slightly different. As I gathered them in my hands, I noticed how the smaller ones nested inside the bigger ones. This gave me an idea ...

and, added tiny red beads that look like wild, barberry berries.

Kitt helped by showing how they moved when they were hung up.

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There were a few exceptions to the limited fall palette. Japanese maples peak after the rest of our New England foliage has fallen. My friend Dawn grows a few exceptional ones. Walking around this speciman was quite a heady experience. (To see a few more fall photos click here.)

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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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Flowers, colors, pattern and architecture

I don't weave as much in the summer as I do in the colder months (or update this blog). I get distracted by being outside; exploring the wild areas, watching plants mature and become gardens, and photography. Things change on a daily basis: color combinations, textures and how they all work together. If I don't go out and look everyday I might miss something. The camera helps me remember the vignettes that take my breath away. The photos give me a way to share these glimpses with people who are busy doing other things.

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I've been thinking about how my life and art intersect, specifically how my love of animals, architecture and basketry overlap ... Because I have to find the words in order to tell you about this, it may take a while. I started this blog so I could share a few of the thoughts I have, but I am really far more comfortable weaving than writing. I will be back to continue this.

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This is what my front "yard" looked like in July.

Bittersweet and Remarkable

It's been a time of loss, new beginnings and change. In the last few weeks I learned that 3 of my friends will be moving away by the end of the summer. (This also means that Emma will loose her 2 best dog friends.) But, we've been adopted by a less-than-a-year-old cat, "Kitt." He walked into the yard and decided to stay. Emma was nearly instantly charmed by the wee beast, who was never overly concerned by Emma's 94 pounds. He purrs when I talk to him and likes to hang out in the garden while I prune and weed. I've had cats before but never one who likes people and trusts dogs. I think he may just be a gift.

I also had to face that oldest tree in my garden was dying and had to be cut down. I had to dig up a densely planted part of the yard so that the bucket truck could reach the giant maple. The tree's leaves covered the whole of the back yard and created a protected, shady environment. (The photo above is what it looked like last year.) Now the challenge will be to redesign the exposed space and work with the sun.

I've been pruning what's left to rebalance the strange new openness. Working with the paths and larger bushes, has been a challenge. Thirty years ago the garden started as a collection of plants I couldn't resist. Then I moved to bushes. I've been editing and moving things around, but it had gotten pretty wild. People politely called it a "cottage-garden." I've been simplifying, adding structure and creating vistas. Change is hard for me, but the back garden is going to look better than it did before!

Then, a week ago I went to a remarkable Garden Tweet-Up at the home of Margaret Roach. Gardeners and friends of gardeners came from CT, NY, NJ, NY, NH, MA, PA, TX to meet and talk together. I'd been tweeting and reading blogs by half of the 20 people I met there. Although I'm not a garden designer, or garden writer (most of the people were) I am a serious gardener. We all shared an interest in plants, color combinations and in creating spaces using them. Most of the group also shared an interest in photography and social media. It was fun for all to spend time, and get to visit with real people.

*The photo of me looking more relaxed than I've felt in weeks was shot by Lynn Felici-Gallant.