willow trivet
These are willow trivets or cooling trays. Willow scalloms are tied on to a hoop frame and then two rows of fitching across. Simple form. Katherine puts these into the “much harder than it looks” category! She learned this “basket” from Jenny Crisp, an excellent basketmaker in England. Katherine wrote about this workshop at the Basketmakers Association spring school at York in 2006 and we posted the article on our website here. These cooling trays sell for $50 each.
Dunbar Gardens farmstand
I opened the farmstand with a small selection of produce. The garden is producing lettuce, spinach, chard, basil, zucchini, sugar snap peas, baby boc choy, broccoli, nappa cabbage, artichokes right now. Our farmstand is a low key affair. Most of the customers are regulars. People help themselves. Most come because they enjoy the fresh picked quality.
Spike the farmstand greeter
Of course some folks come just to say hi to Spike. (Or at least they tell her that while they are buying some apples.) We’re always a good destination for customers to bring friends and family to admire Katherine’s willow baskets.
willow baskets at Dunbar Gardens
Current schedule: Open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 10am to 6pm.
Katherine Lewis willow basket
Celebrate Skagit Art is an annual art show sponsored by Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland and coordinated by Skagit Artists Together. It is a great opportunity to appreciate the work of local artists who are inspired by the working landscapes of the Skagit Valley. Part of the art sales will benefit the group’s work to protect agricultural lands here. The show is generously hosted by the La Conner Seaside Gallery. The artists opening reception is Saturday, July 18 from 6:30 – 8:30pm.
Katherine is submitting the basket in the photo which she has named “Furrow”. This basket is a tray 38 inches long by 11 inches wide. It has a rectangular frame base with scallomed on stakes and double French randing for the weaving. It is woven with Skagit grown willow ,of course! Unlike most of the artists participating, Katherine is not only inspired by but has been directly involved with agriculture for 27 years, 15 of them in the Skagit Valley.
The show opens the same weekend as the annual Skagit Artists Together Studio Tour. Katherine and Dunbar Gardens will be on the tour again this year Saturday & Sunday, July 18 & 19, 10am-6pm. More about this event closer to the dates.
Sparki's parrot cage
Katherine recently completed weaving this parrot cage. It was a commission for a customer in nearby Anacortes, WA. She has a parrot named Sparki who gets thoroughly upset if the people go outside on the deck for coffee and leave her behind in the house. So the idea was to get a basket to put Sparki in for the outside on the deck or in the garden. (Just to be clear – the parrot does not live in the basket.) The basket needed a lid so that Michele could open it to place a metal perch she has inside. The lid is woven tight so that the parrot doesn’t perceive any predator threats from above. It has a front door for putting in the parrot. It has side handles to carry it. The basket is a little like a fitched laundry hamper. The door and its opening did provide some technical challenge to make.
parrot cage base
staked up
fitching
before the top waling
the door
the door latch
side handle
parrot basket lid
parrot basket
