Woven Beginnings: My First Wild Willow Baskets
Out gathering materials; one of my favorite activities.
Oh the slow chilled winter daze! It feels like winter has finally hit!
We had our first snow a few days ago and temps have dropped. The Canadian enjoys this weather much more than I do. Feeling like my bundled child self when I do go out, I mainly only go outside to adventure into the woods and to the creek or to make it from point A to point B. Aside from indoor projects (like tiling) and Ini's work on the Welcome Kiosk, we are turning our sights inward, reading much, and spending time indoors.
Making my first basket.
As previously mentioned, this winter I wanted to teach myself to weave with native materials. I started off looking into the river cane, an incredible native bamboo beloved by the Native Americans who lived here previously. Yet, I feel I need a teacher to move forward in this craft -- or perhaps I am trying to peel the cane in the wrong season? Nevertheless, there are some Native teachers I may seek out in Oklahoma- especially if they have a workshop on cane material prep and weaving this year. Instead, I have turned my sights onto other materials and I've made two baskets!
Alabask cozy by the fire. The 2nd basket I made sits behind her filled with cedar kindling for starting fires.
These are some of the books I used from the library. Very handy! Contain everything I need to get started.
A basic intro to making a base. This is from the book in the lower left hand corner.
My first basket - what a thing!
Though I did it with a library book tutorial, each step is new and one doesn't know what one needs to do until ya do it for the first time. It's cool to already see progress on basket #2 - simply because I knew more about the nuances of the materials and what needed to happen at each stage. Still, the first basket, a true experimental labor of love, is in use and am somewhat charmed by it. However, this second basket.. Ini and I aren't really taking our eyes off of it!
Far from perfect, my second basket is USEFUL. It is this that has me deeply enamored with this process.
The indwelling magic of taking nothing but materials from here to make a useful object with them. As I wrote last night in reflection:
I finished a basket tonight that's already holding our cedar kindling and sitting next to the fire. It was definitely a life changing moment seeing it there. Somewhat of an epiphany. So outside of capitalism, untouchable. Made completely from this land I love only using secateurs, following a book from the library, a transmission of a skill long held by humans. Something untouchable by the system, made from here, by my hand & serving a purpose... weaving purpose with the land.
My 2nd basket! A kindling basket.
Truly I am enamored with this process and its implications. In a throwaway culture to be able to take a wildcrafting jaunt, especially down by wild water hearing the sounds of the fluid creek as I gather willow, sycamore, bramble and other vines, and harvest materials for a much needed basket... this is really something else.
Of course something quite old, but marvelous to my modern self. We've been needing a kindling basket for quite some time and we love the look of it sitting there holding the freshly split cedar from our land that we use to start our fires. It beautifies and enhances the whole place. And just looking at it.. the hues and textures, knowing it is born of the river, carries the energy of flood and heron, sunshine and the constant gurgle of spring fed creek... but most of all that it didn't pass through the hands of commerce and I made it! And I can make more!
I would like to next perhaps work on a basket with a circular base. It is a bit tricky with the materials I have because they are not uniform "farmed" willow (though I think I will order some of these cuttings to root in the spring so that I can have some cultivated "basketry willow" which is longer, stronger, uniform and comes in neat colors! Yet making these "wild" baskets is a fantastic first step and I read somewhere, and was thinking this too, that if I can weave with the irregular funky pieces, I will cultivate my skill well for when I do have the long ones. And I do love the funk!
Happiness is making practical objects which escape the economy, made from the land which we love and tend, adding beauty to our abode.
I've read a lot of books lately on indigenous stories and I am feeling inspired -- and also that sick/raging sadness of the destructive march of civilization/modern culture which erases and kills it at every turn. Yet these are skills that bring life and we are all connected to the land, and can be more aware and more connected if we put more time/attention into it.
Blessings, Wren of Mountain Jewel
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://www.ozarkmountainjewel.com/2019/01/21/woven-beginnings-my-first-wild-willow-baskets/
Wren, that is so awesome!!! The fact that you collected all of the materials and taught yourself from books is definitely something to be proud of! This post was beautifully written and it really makes me feel inspired to get myself closer to nature again. Hope you guys are doing well in this crazy cold weather!
thanks Melody!! :) <3 it was really fun and I'm happy to be learning it. Staying warm :) Hope you all are well too!
Great work!
Thanks!! :)
Making your first basket must be of fun and also stress I
a wee bit of stress -- esp when i was getting tired by the end and at one point I even had to start over a certain section. but certainly worth it and def fun :)
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Ooh, so pretty!!!
Looking forward to to seeing what all you make as you develop that skill. It's cool to see wildcrafting going beyond food foraging.
the Maker's Creed
very eloquently stated @mountainjewel
Amazing, I have always wanted to have a go at baskets. I've just never made time for it, but it looks like you are a dab hand at it! Keep going!
oh wow! This is really inspiring and I love the basket you made, it is beautiul.
That's quite a fancy one what you have made. I am sure it's a lot of hard work and time consuming but at the same time it's good fun.
Not bad. I bet with practice, you'll get very good at making sturdy and beautiful baskets.
The different colors really add a lot. Some of the old native american basket shapes were more oblong and asymmetric, almost like a gourd, and I always thought those were the most interesting.