Willow Basketmaker

Handcrafted Willow Baskets by Katherine Lewis

Puyallup Fair Grand Champion

Posted on October 9, 2010 by Steve@DunbarGardens

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 Katherine originally made this basket for an exhibit called “Paint Me a River!”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”.

Grand champion

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Steve@DunbarGardens

Grand Champion at the Puyallup Fair

Katherine recently won the Grand Champion ribbon in the professional basket maker division of the home arts competitions at the Puyallup Fair, or officially the Western Washington Fair. She won the blue ribbon in the wickerwork category and the overall winner. This year the fair ran from September 11-27 and had well over a million visitors. In recent years, entries in the basketry categories had been dropping; so members of the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild made an effort to encourage participation this year. Katherine was fortunate to have Vicky Nickelson transport her basket to and from the fair. In case weavers are interested, the basket was made from Salix purpurea ‘nana’.