Book Binding

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I took another fun class at Perennial last week, this time learning how to do Coptic binding. I have wanted to take this class for awhile now, but for various reasons the timing had never worked. It was surprisingly easier than I expected, but we weren't getting overly complicated with our stitch pattern. I look forward to trying another one.

Black and White Black Ash Basket

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I finally finished up this 9” diam. black ash basket that I started back in April. It was started in a mold than woven free-form for the last half. It features a quadrafoil pattern in the base as well as a rim of quadrafoil. I wasn't initially expecting to make the basket this tall, but after weaving up the base and pinning it to the mold I realized I had a lot of upright length if I wanted to play with it. Fortunately I did a pretty good job of centering my uprights otherwise I would have been screwed. As it was I used up every last bit of my stave/upright length. I literally had 1/16" left on a couple of them by the time I had the rim row woven in. I probably ended at a good point as there was just enough room left in between the uprights to fit my lasher through. If I had gone smaller at the rim I would have had to lash with waxed linen or found a narrower lasher.

Big Hands/Little Baskets

Lashing a one inch black ash Shaker-style kittenhead basket during the JoAnn Kelly Catsos workshop I recently hosted.

All of a sudden my fingers are huge!

Interesting Basket

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I look at this basket every time I go to Artichoke Annie's antique mall outside of Columbia, MO. It is woven of some type of palm frond-type material instead of traditional white oak. The basket had double lids originally, but all that remains are hinge holes in the handle and metal loops on the rim, where there must have been closure hooks. It’s priced at around $300, so I’ve always passed. One of these days (if it is still there) I may break down and buy it.