Good time of year to make baskets! I love the Easterish colours of the Ethernet wire so made small baskets for my son and daughter.
My mom also had fun with a scrap of the brown and white wires to make this little Barbie-sized basket. We reminisced with my sister at the family gathering about the hours we spent setting up Barbie houses with many little finds such as this.
My Week 12 basket was also for Easter to use for our eggs and Latvian buns.
My first zig zag weave basket with a wooden bowl & utensils carved by my Mom in art college
I had admired Lene Rasmussen’s baskets with a zig zag weave when at Lakeshore Willows, so I wanted to try it out. I found some examples online and studied the pattern but am probably missing out on some tips to make it consitent and not break the weavers on such sharp turns. The base turned out nicely wide and sturdy, so the utensils don’t topple it over. I picked the colours to go with the copper, gold and silver backsplash glass tiles.
Detail of zigzag weave
My husband and I go to the English Country Dancing Regency Ball every year at the Navy Hall of Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake. This week I had fun designing a Regency-style reticule.
Souvenir ball ticket with the reticule in our 1830s apartment window
3rd Annual Regency Ball at Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
I chose a fine Belgian Red willow to match the dress I made out of a lovely cotton fabric with a woven pattern of tiny white and red flowers. What a bargain table find at Fabricland and so very Regency.
My great-grandmother’s crocheted lace.
I am delighted to finally have a special use for the crocheted lace band you see woven in the basket. My great-grandmother in Germany crocheted it 80+ years ago. I have been holding on to it for 30 years waiting for a way to use this short length. Here it will be gently preserved woven among the stakes. I used black bias fabric tape behind it to keep it stiff and to highlight the delicate pattern.
Perhaps ladies of 1812 would not have used a basket when attending an evening ball, but I wanted something in which to hide my phone for photos!
I am frustrated and tired from a construction job in our garage building project. Feeling overwhelmed I have learned to walk away and find a happy activity to reset my neurons and mood before tackling the task again. The evening is approaching. I pick up my iPad to write my weekly blog post (sharing on this blog has become such a feel-good activity), but the evolving dusk across the horizon out my window lures my attention.
There.
Just for a minute or two. A mindful moment.
Our window faces east but we enjoy a phenomena when the sun sets behind us in the west: in our east view the escarpment ridge reflects the firey orange sunlight while the sky lights up in a brilliant pink.
I stop everything.
I breathe.
I watch the shifting colours as pink fades to purple fades to blue. I have witnessed this colourful gift of nature many times out back of our home yet each time I breathe in awe. The horizon is expansive popping in glowing orange on the highest ridges with the last of the sunlight’s reflection. The sky above is even more vast as it unfolds in its palette just ahead of nightfall.
Maple & I watch the last of the sunset reflecting off the escarpment- the best has passed & photos never capture the true rich colours.
Now the landscape is dull brown grey in the last light. The sky is now a cool darkening blue. I just heard the first of the nightly coyote howls. If I had raced on in my garage or gone on to another to-do item, I would have missed nature’s escapade.
Living mindfully has taught me to take in the moments. I am fortified and refreshed.
I am ready to go back out to the garage and work late into the night to finish my construction woodwork (ahead of the drywall crew showing up at 8 am tomorrow).
Willow basket with French randing and braided border.
You can see I am on a French randing and braided border trend! I love the way the spirals form in this kind of randing, so I selected a Bleu and a Hakuro Nishiki for contrasting colours in the side weavers. I had struggled in Week 6 with too thick willow in my first braided border. Since I practised the braiding technique on the last two weeks’ wire baskets, I wanted to give it another go in willow.
Here is a little rhyme I made up to remind me of the steps for the braided border:
Criss, cross, a stake to ground.
Then leave its neighbour pointing down.
I used the dimensions and stake pattern from Jon Ridgeon’s first project in his book and on his website, but after the set up I got artistic with the colours, randing and border!
One of my favourite spots here in the Blue Mountains is our Craigleith Depot. It was a railway station, and we are a train-loving family thanks to my Dad. I imagine the generations of residents and visitors coming in and out of the station over the years. From the Petun First Nations to the settlers, I am always fascinated with the human history of our area.
Today the Depot it is not just our town’s history museum but it is a hub of our community with all sorts of programming and monthly meetings. I have joined the Blue Mountains Writers’ Group as a newly minted blog writer to exchange inspiration with other local writers of all levels of expertise. I also attend the monthly Sweetwater Meditation Circle. La Mer Douce was Champlain’s name for Georgian Bay and translates as Sweetwater Sea. It is a highlight of my week to meet with such great welcoming people, and I miss our meetings when I’m teaching in Niagara! Check out the museum’s calendar for these groups and neat films etc.
You can see the orange & brown swirling up the side due to the French randing.
Apologies to fellow willow weavers, but this week I had to choose a portable basket to make. I wove this while traveling to Toronto via GO bus and train on Sautrday. It was also an opportunity to refine some technique when using wire instead of branches:
French randing & braided border
If you are a visual learner like me, you are probably thinking you need to see photos of what I’ve just said. I promise in a future post I will take step by step photos now that I have worked the kinks out. This next week though I am craving to return to willow.
Upside down view
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.
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