The Canada Eve Party put on by the Library & Depot Museum is quite the tradition in the Blue Mountains! The Community Centre was busy all night with children’s workshops. Children came by my table to learn how to make small willow trivets, fish & star wands.
I also volunteered at the L.E. Shore Library in August to teach how to weave little garden gnomes. We made little garden gnomes using willow, dogwood, bark and wool. Children, parents & grandparents all had fun crafting together!
Athe artisan market on the weekend. I’ve made my own signs and shirt using a Kijiji Cricut maker! While at the market I completed a harvest basket of Dogwood and stripped willow.
We had a great time at the Marsh Street Centre with 2 willow weaving workshops. In the morning we made willow & dogwood baskets by starting with a stained wood base. This workshop is a great introduction to basket weaving. Starting with a wooden base shape of your choice, you learn traditional weaving techniques for the sides and border to create a small basket. Willow & Dogwood Basket on Wooden Base In the afternoon we made stars & hearts from willow and then wove large hearts out of dogwood and willow.
Hearts, stars & garlands
A good week for basket weaving practice! First, I visited my mom and taught her how to do the spiral weave on a wood base. She used to be a college instructor like me, so together we talk about how to best teach the steps in future workshops. 
Secondly, my cousin from British Columbia surprised us with a visit. He is a computer programmer, so I made him a basket of Ethernet wire. I use the cut-offs from my son’s IT business and modify traditional willow weaving techniques such as French randing. For the border is used a reed basket type that I learned from Kajjka Hátleová’s pleteme z pedigu 3.
There is a round basket in Jon Ridgeon’s book, Willow Craft: 10 Simple Projects, that inspired me to try different shapes too. To keep with the theme of Clarksburg has h’ART, I made a heart-shaped basket using the same technique. Notice the lovely red contrasting dogwood woven in with the willow. These baskets turned out somewhat rustic as I only had dogwood stakes with me at my parents’ when I wove these. Because you start with a wood base instead of weaving one, this is a great way to introduce basket weaving in just a couple of hours, so I am teaching this project in the morning workshop on February 9.
1. Start with wood base.
2. Poke stakes through holes.
3. Lock in butts of stakes.
4. Secure stakes with waling.
5. Weave sides. Add waling on top.
6. Create border with stakes. Clip ends.
Grand finale of 2018…
Organically shaped 2-level cat basket out of Willow, Dogwood and wild vine.
During the Christmas break week I returned to a long-delayed peaceful mindful pause for busyness…13.5 hours of creativity over several days the basket shape grew organically. I started with some old willow I had forgotten under the snow, added Dogwood I had cut and left outside for 6 weeks, added wild vine so the cats could be entertained with the curly cues, and finally had to use some good Willow because the creation was becoming so big!
Click here to view a 360 degree video of the basket.
Toulouse on the ground floor of the kitty condo.
Toulouse peeks out one of the windows.
At our local Beaver Valley Fall Fair, I entered three categories:
A garden ornament made of sticks and stones. I used fresh cut local heritage willow to weave the sphere and then added a variety of stones that come out of my digging up here inside the sphere. I sprayed clear coat on the rocks to bring out their beautiful colours like they look when they are wet.
Something useful from something useless. I entered a couple of my baskets made from Ethernet wire cut-off ends.
A craft made from wood not otherwise in another category. So I entered a Dogwood basket!
I made 2 frames and then worked some dogwood for colour into the willow rows. The fine pieces of inner bark that peeled off some over-soaked willow was tough and strong enough to use to tie the frame in its shape. The design is again from Jon Ridgeon’s book.
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