Basket Class

Saturday morning those of us that were free drove over to LouAnn's house for a basket class. Her son is Nick DeFord, an artist who's been an instructor over at UT and currently working at Arrowmont. Years ago we had him teach us a class on dyeing yarns for shibori which was very helpful for us once we started to dye bamboo.

I enjoy taking Nick's classes because his instructions are clear and concise. This time he was teaching us to make free form baskets. I made some baskets years ago when I first started going to the center. That Christmas everyone got baskets. They were the typical market baskets that have traditionally been made in this area.
These were different. If you have strict instructions on how to make something, you just follow the directions and you know what's going to happen next. Free form baskets don't work that way.

 So, start by making the opening with the reeds....

 I think the sun was in Carl's eyes. He struggled with the free form aspect and ended up with a structured piece that was fun to see. He forced structure into the free form. Here, he's just starting.

 Some people found it easier to start than others.

 About an hour later, I tried to take a few pictures showing that yes, we could get going. The expressions are much more relaxed now!

 The baskets were coming along nicely!!

 We had to stop at noon for potluck. We never assign any foods for potlucks. Just bring whatever. We've never been disappointed yet!

 Here are the bunch of us that were there with our baskets!! Carl's second from the right. You can see his cone shaped basket in his hands!

 Here's mine.

Given a little more time and more reeds, it would be fun to see what shapes you could make. It's not easy to be free form. You look at what you've done and have to envision what's next. I guess it's kind of like an author writing a book. You have the concept of what you want to say or do but getting there is the challenge. It did become fun getting the reeds to go where you wanted them to go. Sometimes your concept changed as the reeds and shape kind of dictated what would come next.
So the next step is what can we do to continue that? Add more fibers in the mix? Got a scrap or two of yarn that's not enough to weave? Weave it into the basket. We could dye some reeds too.....The possibilities are endless!
I really enjoyed Saturday. The weather was awesome and everyone there was helpful, having fun and together creating something that will be useful in our studios.

Today it's back to my studio. I've finished weaving reds and wound a green warp on Friday. I'll be threading it today and hope to weave a bit. It's going to be another busy week so I'll try to get as much weaving time in as I can!
Until next week, keep weaving!
Carol