The Arizona Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guild will be hosting their sixth biannual conference in Phoenix, AZ on April 15-18, 2010. The name of the conference will be "Fibers Through Time 2010" and the theme is "Fiber Odyssey." Workshops in various types of weaving, spinning, basketry, gourd art, beading, and other fiber related fields will be offered. If you are interested in presenting a teaching proposal please go to the website. Proposals are due no later than May 30, 2009.
For more on various artist opportunities and call to entry information, please visit this page on BasketMakers.com
Add the Basketry Call to Entry Data to your calendar or feed reader. 
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2009-03-27
Fibers Through Time 2010
2009-03-25
Line Your Easter Basket
Fill your Easter Baskets with a simple fabric basket liner. The fabric liner is made in the form of a cross. The points of the liner fold over the edge of the basket. The inside of the liner lies smoothly and the handle is accommodated without the liner bunching up. Whether it is used in a basket you have woven yourself or one you have purchased, this basket liner can make any Easter basket more festive. A free basketry project from BasketMakers.com.
Patrick Dougherty
Artist-In-Residence: Patrick Dougherty
March 30 - April 18, 2009 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
This spring, Dougherty will create a unique, abstract sculpture during a three-week on-site residency in Philadelphia. Working with volunteers and staff, Dougherty will weave hundreds of sticks and saplings into a whimsical site-specific creation along the banks of the Wissahickon Creek in the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania’s Butcher Sculpture Garden.
You can learn more about Patrick Dougherty and view his site-specific installations on his website as well as flickr.
2009-03-23
Circles of Life
Circles of Life: Katsina Imagery in Hopi Basketry is ongoing until July 3, 2009 at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, AZ.
This traveling exhibition featuring katsina imagery on Hopi basketry, curated by Andrew and Judith Finger, is from the Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House in Ukiah, CA. It includes historic pieces from the Finger collection as well as contemporary examples from the John Selmer and Barbara Goldeen collection. While at Arizona State Museum, it will be augmented by the museum's own collections of Hopi baskets, pottery, and kachina dolls.
Historic pieces and the work of eight contemporary weavers demonstrate the continuing vitality of this art form. Enjoy an historic overview of the Hopi basket-making traditions, techniques and types, and learn how to "read" and identify distinguishing katsina iconography.
An exhibit catalog is available.
Saturday, April 4, 2009 a Care of Baskets Lecture and Workshop has been scheduled to complement the Circles of Life exhibition currently on view at ASM. Museum conservators will share information on how to care for, store, and display baskets in your own collection in two-part program: (1) a free illustrated lecture at 11:00 am will discuss how different plant materials and technologies impact the durability and care of basketry (limited to 40); (2) a 1:00 pm hands-on workshop will expand on the information in the lecture and demonstrate the methods used by museums to clean basketry surfaces, support them while on display, and provide protection during in storage ($20/person, limited to 20). Attendees are encouraged to bring a basket from their personal collection. Registration required for both parts of the program.
2009-03-18
Smithsonian Craft Show
27th Annual Smithsonian Craft Show April 23 – April 26, 2009 at the National Building Museum, Washington, DC. The Craft Show is produced by the Smithsonian Women's Committee to benefit education, outreach and research programs within the Smithsonian Institution.
Participating basketmakers in 2009 include Mary Jackson, Kari Lonning, Dennis Nahabetian, Jon Ricci, Biba Schutz and Jennifer Heller Zurick.
View a slide show of their work.
2009-03-17
Traditions and Innovations V
The National Basketry Organization has announced plans for its 2009 Biennial Convention, "Traditions and Innovations V" to be held at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. This event will mark the tenth anniversary of the NBO. Events will include workshops, keynote speakers and numerous exhibits. Classes will be offered by Kate Anderson, Lanny Bergner, Charissa Brick, Pat Courtney Gold, Vivian Harrison, Polly Jacobs Giacchina, Jill Nordfors Clark, John Garrett, Lindsay Ketterer Gates, Herman Guetersloh, June Kersig-Hinson, Caroll Loomis, Kelly Palmer, Melissa Peterson-Renault, Teri Rofkar, JoAnne Russo, Jo Stealey and Polly Adams Sutton. For additional details visit the NBO website.
FiberARTS Student Sampling
Call for Entries - FiberARTS Magazine Student Sampling 2009
FiberARTS Magazine's annual sampling of student work will be featured in their November/December 2009 issue and is open to current students in a collegiate-level fiber program. Deadline: June 15
For more information, contact (970) 669-7672; info@fiberarts.com or visit http://www.fiberarts.com/student/
Info from 2008 Student Showcase
Additional Call-to-Entry information is available on BasketMakers.com
2009-03-15
American Masterpieces
American Masterpieces: The Artistic Legacy of California Indian Basketry Premieres at The California Museum
American Masterpieces: Artistic Legacy of California Indian Basketry exhibition will open at The California Museum on March 14, 2009. This exhibit of over 80 California Indian baskets from the vast collection held by California State Parks, will be on display through early 2010. Many of these exquisite baskets will be on public view for the first time.
The exhibit is presented by California State Parks and the California Arts Council with funding from a National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces grant. It features the evolution of Native American basketry in California, a functional artistic tradition 5,000 years in the making. Rooted in a way of life that relied on baskets for survival, native California baskets were strong, durable, versatile, lightweight, and often watertight. Using materials found within their natural environment, native people used baskets in every activity of life including food gathering, social and ceremonial needs. Over time a market had developed for the acquisition of finely made “art” baskets.
“By the turn of the 19th century, California Indian basketry had become one of the most highly developed, and sought after traditional art forms in America,” exhibit curator Brian Bibby explained. “The remarkable integrity of techniques and materials, visually stimulating designs, variety of form, and graceful sculptural qualities placed basketry at the forefront of a burgeoning art market, with thousands of pieces collected by museums and art connoisseurs throughout the
nation.”
The innate beauty, usefulness, boundless variety, and universal quality of Native basketry throughout California – regardless of environment –reveals masterful technical traditions and artistry in these “American Masterpieces.”
2009-03-13
Web & Flow
Web & Flow is a National Basketry Exhibition co-sponsored by National Basketry Organization March 6 - April 18, 2009 at Textile Center, 3000 University Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414.
Participating Artists include Jackie Abrams, Dona Anderson, Rise Andersen, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Pamela Becker, Lanny Bergner, Nancy Moore Bess, Joan Brink, Jane Chavez, Jill Choate, Michael Davis, Jennifer Dyer, Carol Eckert, Kathryn Erickson, Sandy Jefferis, John Garrett, Alison Gates, Lindsay Ketterer Gates, Ricki L. Geiger, Herman Guetersloh, Carolyn Halliday, Jane Herrick, Christine Joy, Susan Kavicky, Nancy Koenigsberg, Tina Koyama, Jennifer Falck Linssen, Kari Lonning, Rebecca McEntee, Dorothy McGuinness, Cathleen Michel, Mary M. Miller, Debra Muhl, Judy Mulford, Joh Ricci, Jennifer Rife, Michael Rohde, JoAnne Russo, Kathryn Rousso, Barbara Shapiro, Norman Sherfield, Karyl Sisson, Leandra Spangler, Jo Stealey, Tressa Sularz, Polly Adams Sutton, Richard Vogt, Helen Frost Way, Peggy Wiedemann, A.L. Woods, Cindy Wrobel and Peggy Wyman.
CRAFTBOSTON
CRAFTBOSTON hosted by The Society of Arts and Crafts is the premiere New England exhibition and sale of contemporary art, craft and design. The show will feature 200 of the most outstanding artists of our time, showcasing one-of-a-kind and limited-edition pieces in baskets, ceramics, decorative fiber, wearables, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper and wood.
Additionally, CRAFTBOSTON features work by emerging artists from leading schools and universities, an artist mentor program, a book seller, an educational lecture series, tours for guests who are blind and visually impaired and other special interest groups, and informational booths promoting non-profit craft organizations.
Basketmakers Kari Lonning, Debora Muhl and JoAnne Russo are among the participating artisans.
Donna Sakamoto Crispin Workshops
Donna has written to alert me to workshops she has scheduled this summer. July 8-10, 2009 you can explore basketweaving with natural materials in this workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Otis, Oregon. The class will introduce you to a variety of grasses, barks, twigs, vines, roots, fibers, and more! Students will make a variety of projects, like a bird house, birch pouch with embellishments, and twined baskets made from locally grown iris leaves, with Northwest sedge. Donna will discuss growing, collecting, and harvesting natural materials. She grows many of her weaving materials, and collects from the wetlands and forests around Eugene, Oregon.
She will teach this workshop entitled Baskets from Nature a second time at Ghost Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico July 14-20, 2009.
Donna has been making baskets and teaching basketweaving for 20 years to people of all ages, from 6 years old and up. She has won several awards and has shown her work all over the U.S. and in Japan. For more info, see www.donnasakamotocrispin.com.
In Memoriam: Donna Mae Largo
Noted Santa Rosa band of Cahuilla Indians basketweaver and founder of Nex’wetem, the Southern California Indian Basketweavers Association has passed away. Donna Mae Largo died at her home March 4, 2009. Notice of her death with a guest book is available online as well as other tributes and photos.
Memorial contributions may be made to Nex'wetem, in care of Lori Sisquoc, 3546 Donald Ave., Riverside, CA 92503.
2009-03-12
Lindsay Ketterer Gates Workshop
As I search for news and tidbits to share with basketmakers I like to pay attention to where the prominent studio artist basketmakers are teaching. This morning I noticed that Lindsay Ketterer Gates will offer a 4 day workshop at Peters Valley Craft Center in Layton, NJ June 12-15, 2009. The workshop is titled "Sculpting with Fiber Techniques in Wire" and is open to students at all levels.
This workshop is designed to teach beginners basic wire techniques that can be used to create three dimensional forms. Students will explore the world of contemporary basketry and the use of found and commonplace objects as embellishment. Knotless netting, random weave, tinkering, twining and coiling are some of the techniques that will be introduced. Students will be encouraged to combine techniques and unusual materials when creating their own pieces and to work as small or as large as they wish.
Lindsay Ketterer Gates is a studio artist working out of Milford, PA. Her non-traditional sculptural baskets feature constructed forms of wire with overlays of knotless netting and found objects such as pistachio nut shells. She is represented by galleries including Jane Sauer Gallery (Santa Fe, NM) and Snyderman-Works Gallery (Philadelphia, PA). If you are not familiar with Lindsay's work you may want to visit her website.
Information about registering for the workshop.
To learn more about other prominent studio basket artists visit this page at BasketMakers.com.
2009-03-11
Fiberworks 2009 ~ Call for Entries
If you are a fiber artist from Oklahoma the annual Fiberworks exhibition, sponsored by Fiber Artists of Oklahoma, provides an opportunity to showcase your work, from traditional crafts to innovative art. This eclectic show, juried by Jiseon Lee Isbara, honors quality workmanship and original designs. The exhibit also educates the public about the many facets of fiber artistry by presenting a wide range of media, techniques, and traditions.
Media: Works in weaving, needlework, basketry, quilting, soft sculpture, paper, knitting, crocheting, felt, and all other works primarily constructed of fiber will be considered for acceptance.
Entry Deadlines: Entries will be received at the gallery on Saturday, June 6, and Monday, June 8, from 12 - 4 p.m.
Prospectus
Exhibit gallery location: Individual Artists of Oklahoma
Visit the Google calendar for more basketry related Call to Entry information or stop by the Call to Entry page of BasketMakers.com.
2009-03-05
2009 Basket Calendar ~ March
Basket Willow Culture By C. D. Mell
Speaking of willow culture... I got a question on the forum yesterday and in the process of checking resources for my response I happened on this book. It is a book originally published in 1908, a publication date that makes it available in the public domain. Basket Willow Culture: Practical Instructions for Planting, Cultivating, Harvesting and Marketing by Clayton Dissinger Mell who was at that time the Assistant Dendrologist in the Forest Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. It includes topics such as basket willow culture, soil requirements, preparation of the ground, selecting the varieties for planting, preparing and storing the cuttings, spacing the cuttings, weeding and cultivating the holt, fertilizing, restocking open places, proper rotation for basket willows, cutting the rods, pruning the rods, sorting the rods, peeling the rods, insect enemies of basket willows, utilizing willow bark, and the economics of growing the basket willow. Aside from the financial data which would not be current after one hundred years, there is a lot to be learned from publications such as this. Keep in mind when it was written as you read it. You may read it online or download it in .pdf format from Google Book Search. Another publication about basket willow culture is this Farmer's Bulletin article from 1914. Many others will turn up in this search.
Telling you about these publications affords me the opportunity to remind you about the various resources for published basketry information that has fallen into the public domain. It isn't necessary to pay online opportunists who charge for this sort of publication on internet auction sites and online bookstores. You see this sort of offering for CD's or reprints of volumes such as this one all over and there is no reason to fatten the wallets of individuals hawking them. In many cases the sellers have violated the terms of service of the organizations who have offered free public access to the publications and then repackaged them for their own profit.
I have assembled a group of resources on locating these publications from organizations and individuals who do provide access to them for free. I encourage you to share these resources with your guild members or anyone else who might benefit from knowing about them. Visit Basket Weaving eBooks eTexts and Free Downloads to learn more.
2009-03-04
Grow Your Own Willow
Is this the year that you will begin to grow your own willow? If you are a basketmaker or just someone who wishes to go green and live a more independent and sustainable lifestyle, maybe the time has come for growing your own willow patch. Katherine Lewis and Steve Lospalluto of Dunbar Gardens have been growing willow for basketry since 1994. They take orders for willow cuttings from December 15 to April 15. Orders are shipped starting in February, so now is the time to place an order.
They have 60 species and varieties of Salix growing on their farm in Skakagit Valley in Mount Vernon, Washington, USA. Willow is easy to propagate in most soils. An eight to twelve inch cutting taken from a dormant one year old rod is planted directly into the ground in Spring. March thru April is an ideal time to plant. They have willows that are useful for basketry, garden trellises, living fences, furniture, and ornamental hedges. Their website lists the variety of willow cuttings available as well as a willow cuttings order form.
While you are there take time to see the many traditional functional, durable, and beautiful baskets woven by Katherine and stop by her listing of stake and strand willow rod basketmaking demos, classes and workshops on her teaching schedule.
For more about willow basketmaking visit BasketMakers.com
2009-03-03
BasketMakers Welcome
Welcome to BasketMakers Journal. I will use it to let you know about new site additions and news of importance to the basketry community.
In addition I will use it to direct basket collectors to online and on-site auctions that include baskets and let basketmakers know about upcoming exhibits, lectures, demonstrations, festivals, markets, conferences, master workshops and other basketry events. At this point the journal is in development mode. Please excuse the dust while I attempt to learn how things work. Visit BasketMakers.com for the live environment.
April 09 Crafts Report Issue has Basket Focus
The April 2009 issue of Crafts Report has a Basketry focus. You can pick up a copy at your local news stand or visit their site to read what basketmakers Anna Scarpa McCauley (Free Union, Virginia), Debora Muhl (Spinnerstown, Pennsylvania), Jill Choate (Trapper Creek, Alaska), Karen Zane (Anderson, Indiana),
Keely Berry-LeBlanc (Escondido, California), Melanie Walter (Wilmington, North Carolina), Myrna Austin (Sixes, Oregon), Pamela Zimmerman (Washington, North Carolina), Peg Arnoldussen (Appleton, Wisconsin), Therese Fisher (Portland, Oregon), Jenny Antoline (Montgomery, Alabama), Katherine Lewis (Mount Vernon, Washington) and Sharon Gunter (Sandpoint, Indiana) have to say as they share their business insights with fellow craftspeople.
2009-03-02
Two New Basketmakers
Today I added two new basketmakers to the listings on BasketMakers. Take a moment and visit the websites of these traditional woodsplint basketmakers. It is enheartening to know that traditional woodsplint basketry is being practiced by artisans with obvious skill.
Jamin Uticone
Traditional basketmaker from Alpine, NY creates black ash back packs, vegetable-tanned bridle leather strapped baskets and a range of storage baskets including replications of Taghkanic swing handled apple baskets.
More Black Ash Basketry and More Basketmakers
Billy Ray Sims
Alabama basketmaker with a focus on traditional baskets, primarily of white oak, which he harvests and splits himself. His work also includes baskets of New England black ash and South Carolina sea grass. Member of Alabama Designer Craftsmen, Southern Highlands Craft Guild, and Mammoth Cave Basket Makers Guild, Kentucky.
More White Oak Basketry and More Basketmakers
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