Back Row: Mom’s oval Willow basket (left), my oval Willow basket (centre), my 30-year-old Rush basket (right) Front Row: Mom’s 60-year-old Reed basket (left), my Rush & Willow basket (centre), my daughter’s Rush & Willow basket (right)
My mother grew up to be a tapestry artist and weaver, but her first weaving was Reed baskets back in Germany when she was a 13-year-old girl. We found one these 60-year-old baskets shown here! This month she tried a Willow oval basket with me.
I also found my first basket made from over 30 years ago. I attended an archeology summer school to earn a grade 12 history credit. We were excavating a 450-year-old Late Ontario Iroquoian village site. An anthropology instructor visited to teach us about the First Nations life of the time. We learned how to make twine from bark and flute Churt (from a Blue Mountains deposit so very close to where I live now!) into arrow points. We each chose a final project, so I harvested Rush with a sharp stone blade and wove a basket.
And our family’s third generation of basketmakers is my 23-year-old daughter. We were visiting my Father-in-law in England when she spent the day with me making her first basket out of Rush and Willow.
