Knotted Wax Linen Basket 2

Just about have my knotted basket completed. I got to the top of my styrofoam form, dug it out and knotted up a few more rows. I finished off the edge with a row using a thicker core. Now I just need to figure out what I want to do with all the tails of my knotting threads. I have some ideas, but need to do some experimenting before I start cutting anything.

Knotted Wax Linen Basket

My friend Joanne asked me to help her with a knotted project he was playing with. I hadn't knotted in ages, so had fun helping her figure out a few different knots that I hadn't even done. I wasn't sure if I was going to give it back to her as I was demonstrating. So, when I got home I started up my own knotted basket.

Here are some photos of the project in process. I am using 7 ply Irish waxed linen in three shades of red. The "beads" are glass headed pins that I use to hold the piece to the styrofoam block that I carved into form. I may or may not dig the styrofoam out of the basket (in all of my other baskets I have).

UPDATE: Be sure to check out my followup post with more photos of the basket in process, along with the finished piece, here.

John C. Campbell Folk School 2013 - JoAnn Kelly Catsos Mini Black Ash Baskets

At the 2012 Missouri Basketweavers Guild convention I was fortunate to win a week's tuition to the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N. Carolina. I choose to take a challenging class with JoAnn Kelly Catsos making miniature black ash baskets. For whatever reason I don't typically make minis on my own, so was excited to do something outside my comfort zone.

Leading up to my week at the Folk School the forecast was calling for temperatures in the 50s, but by the time the date actually arrived there was chances of snow and ice. Even so a frosty morning at the Folk School is better than any typical morning at home.

On Monday we jumped right into things and started working on a 4" lidded Shaker knife basket. Weaving the body of the basket was deceptively easy. We had no idea what we were in for with the lids.

By the end of the day we have the body of the basket completed and JoAnn had passed out the weavers for the lids (that is the little bundle of splint resting on the mold). The lids would have to wait for morning when we were well rested and the light was good.

Not being one to waste any of my time at the Folk School I start working on another basket. I had made a 10" diameter Bushwhacker style basket a few years earlier, so thought a 4" mini/small version would be perfect for this class. Working on this basket seemed like weaving a bushel basket after the mini knife.

Tuesday morning arrived and we dove into the lids. The uprights for the lids were the weavers on the body of the basket. While this doesn't look like much work it took us until lunch to get to this point. The rest of the day was spent weaving just one weaver into each lid.

Wednesday morning arrived and we jumped right back into working on our lids. JoAnn had emphasized patience in preparing us for this class and the advise was no joke. Fortunately we all stayed in out "happy place" and took our time. The materials were so delicate that it would have been easy to over power them.

Three days of weaving and we have the lids about fit to our baskets.

The edges of the lids had a saw-tooth rim treatment.

As little as these lids were and as long as it took to weave them the rims were surprisingly easy or maybe they only seemed easy in comparison to the last few days of work.

As a break from the lids I worked on a 1 1/2" diameter cathead basket with dome lid.  The uprights on this basket are 1/16" and the weavers are 1/32"!

Thursday was time to attach the lids to the basket. Nothing like drilling holes in the lids you just took two days to weave. JoAnn demonstrated and then sent us off to complete our baskets.

The 4" Shaker lidded knife basket is complete. This was a basket I never dreamed I would make.

My Bushwhaker basket was originally going to have a a swing handle like the sample I brought, but the handle I had made prior to class didn't fit as well as I wanted. So, I mad a quick switch and made a pair of ear handles out of some white ash growth ring I had in my stash.

A fourth and final basket I planed on making during the week was a miniature version of a lidded sewing basket, the first basket that I ever made with JoAnn Kelly Catsos. This 2 1/2" diameter basket was so tiny that I had to use dental floss to tie the rims on.

To complete my lidded sewing basket it needed a lid, so on the last night I wove until almost 1 a.m.

Friday morning arrived all too quickly, but even so everyone was so pleased with everything they had accomplished. I am only holding three of my four baskets. I am not sure where my Bushwhacker was.

If you haven't been to the John C. Campbell Folk School, on the last day they have a show-and-tell where everyone in all the classes display their work for the week. It is so much fun to see what everyone was working on. Here are the results of my many many hours of work and many many hours of fun.

What do you use it for?

I get this question all the time concerning my baskets. My usual answer is, "I use it to sit on a shelf and look at it." This isn't being cute, I simply see baskets as works of art to be displayed as you would any sculpture or painting. I don't consider my baskets to be useless, they are just non-utilitarian. Also, most of the baskets I make these days have nearly $100 or more in materials alone. I am not going to be going out to the garden with a hundred plus dollar basket.

With all that said though, I still do "use" some of my baskets. I have a large black ash basket that is my work/shopping basket that I take to craft shows and carry my weaving supplies around in. I also have an ash basket that I made a draw-string liner for that I use as my tool basket. And I have a nice white oak basket that found at an estate sale that I take the farmers' market. These baskets are all utilitarian forms that I use in a utilitarian fashion.

Pretty much all of the baskets that Eric Taylor teaches are designed with a specific function, e.g. tool tote, business card holder, napkin basket, etc. I have made many of Eric's baskets, but like with most of my other baskets, they are simply display pieces, that is, except for Eric's Cottage Jewelry Basket.

Cottage Jewelry Basket - black ash and cherry.

Of course I don't use it to keep my jewelry, but I do using it to keep my ChapStiks (which are very important to me), billfold, keys and watch. This is where I empty my pockets when I get home from work and before I change into my sweatpants and Crocs...

Christmas Gift

I am very excited that I finally got a set of Tim Holtz Distress Markers by Ranger. I asked for them for Christmas (because they are over $100 for the set!) and my parents got them for me from the scrapbooking store in my home town. I have yet to even open them yet to try them out! I am going to have to find a nice free Saturday or Sunday to just play. My stash of stamped basket cards is desperately low and I need to restock before the State Line Friends Weaving Retreat in April where I will be vending.

I also downloaded the Instragram app the other day and this is my first attempt to use it...

My 2012 Christmas Tree

Right click on a PC or control click on a Mac to gianormasize.

OK, so this post would seem to be a bit late, but since I just got my tree decorated the other evening it actually isn't. By the time I decorate my parents' store window for Christmas, then a few weeks later their house and 10' tall Christmas tree I am starting to poop out on decorating. I usually get my mantle and other table tops decorated and I even get the tree brought up stairs and the lights all working, but with all the other holiday running around I just never have a block of time large enough before I head home to my parents' to actually get the ornaments on the tree. Now you might be asking yourself, "why even bother to decorate the tree at this point?" Well, ever since I moved into my new house I have had an "after the holidays holiday party" usually a couple weeks after the new year. This has worked out to be the perfect time to have a party as everyone is free of holiday commitments, but still in the holiday mood. So, I HAVE to have a Christmas tree for a Christmas/New Year's party. Unfortunately because of the late date of the party I have the perfect excuse to not make time to decorate the tree until after Christmas has already past. I have actually waiting until the night before the party to decorate the tree, but that was just plain stupid as it was a whole lot of work for just a days worth of enjoyment. I promised myself I wouldn't do that again and I did get this one decorated before New Year's Eve like last year. Maybe next year I will even get it up before the 25th! Well, I can at least "plan" on doing that...

2012 Alice Ogden Christmas Ornament

I present Alice Ogden's 2012 Christmas ornament basket. It is now proudly hanging with the rest of my mini baskets on my basket tree. This one is an "onion" or "garlic" baskets woven in a Shaker "cheese weave".