basketry » Willow Basketmaker

Puyallup Fair Grand Champion

Oct 092010

Katherine’s willow basket was selected Grand Champion of the 2010 Puyallup Fair in the professional basketry category of the home arts competitive exhibits. The Puyallup Fair (officially the Western Washington Fair) draws over a million visitors every year and is the largest attraction held annually in Washington State. This basket is titled “Harvesting the Skagit”. Katherine originally made this basket for an exhibit called “Paint Me a River!” which was staged by the Skagit Historical Museum last winter. Katherine is pleased to receive this award for the second year. She won the 2009 Grand Champion ribbon at the Fair for the basket “Nana Queen”.

National Basketry Organization

basketry No Responses »

Feb 032010

Have you checked out the NBO’s website? The organization has a new look after celebrating ten years as a non-profit promoting basketry. The website has been updated and one of the features is an extensive calendar of events. Susi Nuss of Basketmakers.com is a new board member of the NBO and she has been bringing her extensive internet networking to work on the events listing. The group states its mission as promoting the art, skill, heritage, and education of traditional and contemporary basketry. Members receive the quarterly newsletter which always profiles artisans working in basketry. Katherine recently renewed her membership. But anyone can visit the website and keep up to date on workshops, conferences and basketry events across the country; as well as enjoy the gallery of basket photos.

NWBW March retreat preview

basketry No Responses »

Oct 192009

fitched willow shopper

Katherine Lewis will be teaching a two day “Introduction to fitching” class at the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild annual Spring retreat. The dates for next year’s retreat are March 24 – 28, 2010. Katherine’s class will be offered on Thursday and Friday, March 25 & 26 with a limit of ten students. So if you’re interested, you’ll need to keep an eye out for the retreat brochure. By the way, you have to be a member of the group to attend. All the info is at their website.

In the class, students will weave a solid base on a hoop frame, and then scallom on half the stakes and bye-stake the rest into the waling. This will allow enough stakes to learn fitching without spending all day scalloming! We’ll fitch around the basket twice; giving weavers plenty of practice learning this technique. The basket is finished with more waling, a 5-rod border and handle to make a beautiful oval shopper. Everyone will leave with a finished basket because Katherine plans her class time so that all students are able to finish the project in class. However this class is only recommended for weavers with experience with willow.

Tidal Twinings 2009

basketry 2 Responses »

Sep 232009

zig zag weave willow shopper

Katherine recently attended Tidal Twinings 2009, the annual Fall basketry retreat of the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild held in Lincoln City, Oregon. She taught two classes: a one day round fruit or bread basket and a two day zig zag weave willow shopper class. She says that the weavers seem to enjoy the classes and completed some nice baskets. What did she bring back for me? Photos to crop, tweak, and upload into a couple of photo albums which you can view by following the links below.

Tidal Twinings 2009 Zig Zag Willow Shopper class

Tidal Twinings 2009 Willow Fruit Basket class

October class date added

basketry No Responses »

Sep 122009

basic round laundry basket

Katherine has decided to add a willow basketmaking class date to our schedule on October 24-25. The waiting list for the Oct. 10-11 class was starting to grow; so she added a repeat of the class two weeks later as an option. Classes are two days, from 9am to 5pm. Everyone will leave with a finished basket. Class size is limited to 10. Cost is $165 per student which includes materials. There is information and a registration form on our website. These classes are in the Mount Vernon area at the McLean Road Fire Hall near Dunbar Gardens.

gathering basket

Depending on each student’s experience, you can make a round picking or laundry basket of locally grown and English willows. We’ll make a round base using twining, stake up the sides and begin the weave with a sturdy base wale. Students may choose between different side weave options. The laundry basket is larger than the gathering basket, taking more hand strength and more time to weave the sides. Both baskets have the same 5 rod border. The gathering basket is then completed with a cross handle for carrying; the laundry basket will be completed with two roped side handles.

Baskets on Flickr

basketry No Responses »

Sep 062009

One of my favorite websites is Flickr.com. I enjoy posting and sharing photos of Katherine’s work and Dunbar Gardens. One of the nice features of Flickr are the group photo pools, and there are a few groups dedicated to basketry. I have posted quite a few photos in the group *Basket. This group invites all basketmakers, collectors and anyone with an interest in baskets and hand woven items to post their basketry related images. This group has a sister group called *Basket World which has an emphasis on Baskets at work around the world – “baskets in use, being worn, carried, burnt, thrown away, loved, stacked, sold, filled, emptied…”. Artist and photographer Tim Johnson is the administrator of these two groups. Tim’s goal is to make the two pools as vibrant as possible to celebrate our craft.

There are other groups as well that I frequent that are of interest to basketmakers and weavers. Check out Handwoven, Coiled and Twined Basketry, Traditional American Basketry, and *String, Cordage, Binding, Bundles, Braiding & Wrapping. So sign up for Flickr and join in the fun!

August basket class

basketry No Responses »

Aug 172009

Katherine demonstrating a basket handle wrap.

Katherine had a willow basketry class at Dunbar Gardens this past weekend. We had nine people in the class with a range of experience and age. There were total beginners, people who had made some willow baskets, a couple of handweavers, and two who had taken a previous class with Katherine but using a different technique. There was a neighbor from down the block and someone from Sebastopol, CA. Rounding out the mix were Katherine’s friends and fellow willow basket makers Alex Keggan and Debbie McLelland who came by for awhile to give the weavers some assistance when needed. The class participants had the choice of a round gathering basket or an oval garden basket depending on their experience, or not perhaps! Usually I try to get a group photo at the end of class, but somehow we didn’t get around to it. Finish times and departures varied abit at the end. So instead I put together this short slide show (hoping that nobody involved will object!). You can click on the image for a larger view of the photos.

[slideshow id=3458764513847642426&w=426&h=320]

Basketry of the Pacific Northwest

basketry 2 Responses »

Jul 122009

green oval panier a jour

Katherine was pleased to be invited to participate in Basketry of the Pacific Northwest on view in The Lab at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon from July 28 through August 29. This exhibit is a small show in the Community Showcase which features Northwest basket makers, both traditional and contemporary. The show was juried by Charissa Brock and runs in conjunction with The National Basketry Organization‘s 2009 conference in Portland.

The call for entries asked for basketry submissions that have an inspirational tie to an object or image that the artist has in their studio. For Katherine, one of her sources of inspiration are the baskets that she has made while learning from some of her mentors. Below is a photo of an open work French basket that she made while taking a course with Norbert Faure at the Cooperative of Vannerie in Villaines-les-Rochers which inspired the oval panier a jour woven with green Dicky Meadows willow with peeled buff for the fitching in the photo above, one of the baskets accepted for the exhibit.

traditional oval panier a jour

Actually, Katherine was lucky to even apply for the exhibit. Thanks goes to Susi Nuss and her BasketMakers blog who posted on Tuesday, June 30 that the deadline for submissions had been extended to Monday, July 6. Ironically this was the first time we had even heard of this exhibit; so she had less than a week to consider submitting. (Though now Katherine can’t complain too much about my time following all the blogs!) The choice was made a little easier because Kat Perez at the Museum allowed the submission to be e-mailed.

With other projects to complete, she could only squeeze in a couple of days to make some possible entries and get me to photograph them. As those of you who work with ‘brown’ willows know, it also depended on what was soaked up at the moment.

Skagit tray

She decided on making baskets that are fairly typical of her work like the oval panier a jour and this tray that is based on an Irish potato basket. The inspiration for these trays are the willows we grow and harvest on our farm.

willow harvested at Dunbar Gardens

Three submissions were allowed for each entry. The third basket Katherine submitted and the third basket she made last week to submit was the one not chosen. But we sold it for a wedding present today!

willow vase

But even if none of them had been selected, Katherine still needed more baskets for the local Skagit Artists Together studio tour this coming weekend. So if you’re in Portland, check out the Museum of Contemporary Craft and this exhibit which includes not only Katherine’s baskets but work by Pat Courtney Gold, Donna Crispin, Carol Horvath, Claudia Mullek, Patti Shaw, Shannon Weber, Linda Hendrickson, and Nanette Davis.

P.S.:

The Lab at Museum of Contemporary Craft

We were sent this photo sheet by exhibition coordinator Kat Perez. You can click on the image to get a larger size.

Exhibit of Basketry Teachers

basketry 1 Response »

May 132009

panier a jour by Katherine Lewis

This oval panier a jour, or French market basket, was submitted for an exhibit of baskets woven by basketry teachers. Katherine was invited by Joanna Schanz of the Broom & Basket Shop to submit an example of her work for this exhibit at the Philip Dickel Basket Museum and Gallery in the Amana Colonies in Iowa. Each year they have an exhibit to celebrate basketry, and this year’s theme is basketry teachers and their classes across the US. The exhibit will be open from May 24 to October 5, 2009.

inside view of panier a jour

This traditional French basket is one of Katherine’s favorites. The basket is made using the techniques of scalloming and fitching. In 2006 Katherine traveled to France to spend a week in Villaines-les-Rocher at the Basketmakers’ Cooperative to take a course with Norbert Faure. The oval and square panier a jours were the baskets she focused on with Norbert. Despite her limited French, she learned a great deal.

view from above

Here is an excerpt from Katherine’s ‘about the artist’ statement for the exhibit:

Katherine Lewis is a basketmaker in the Pacific Northwest where she has been weaving willow for seventeen years. She has a small farm near Mount Vernon, Washington where she grows the willow used in her baskets allowing her to choose the quality, color, and texture of her weaving materials. Katherine’s goal is to weave willow baskets that are functional and durable while reflecting the natural beauty of the willows. She has studied with accomplished basketmakers from England, Switzerland, France, and Scotland; including traveling twice to the UK and France to tutor with basketmakers, tour the willow growing areas, and learn more about the willow basketmaking traditions. Her instructors have included Adrian Charlton, Jenny Crisp, Sally Goymer, Norbert Faure, Alastair Heseltine, and Werner Turtschi. An extensive background in traditional European techniques coupled with willow growing has given her the abilities and inspiration to pursue this traditional craft with her own vision.

P.S. You can click on the photos for a little larger view.

May basket class

basketry No Responses »

May 062009

May 2-3 willow basketry class

This past weekend Katherine hosted one of her willow basketry classes. 9 out of 10 students had already taken at least one of Katherine’s classes. As Katherine said everyone could twine, everyone could wale, and several are on the verge of really getting the border. Good thing because the projects were a choice between an oval laundry basket or a garden basket. Both start with a similar oval base using twining and chase weaves. The sides of the basket include a sturdy 4 rod base wale with step up to 3 rod wale. The side weave is French randing. The laundry basket is taller and straighter and finished with inset handles while the garden basket flares out more and has a wrapped handle. You can see by the photo that some nice willow baskets were woven and they’re still smiling!

You can see the listing of future willow basketmaking classes on our website.

Older Entries

Puyallup Fair Grand Champion

National Basketry Organization

NWBW March retreat preview

Tidal Twinings 2009

October class date added

Baskets on Flickr

August basket class

Basketry of the Pacific Northwest

Exhibit of Basketry Teachers

May basket class

Welcome

Recent Posts

Archives

Categories

Dunbar Gardens on Flickr

Follow Dunbar Gardens

Check out

Translate this Page