Spring of 2020 Basket Kits Available
Well this has been an interesting spring! With both NCBA and SFWR cancelled, I will miss seeing so very many of you 🙁 However in the the current health crisis, cancelling events and staying home is prudent. Please take good care of yourselves. While it is inconvenient, I hope that this interruption in travel gives you more time to create! My plan is to weave: finish up some UFOs, make some of those baskets swirling around in my brain, update my website and… maybe even blog 🙂
And because of these unexpected changes, I have extra kits. I will not be listing them only in this blog post. If you see a kit(s) you are interested in email me at thebasketteacher@gmail.com , I will email you an invoice via PayPal (or if you prefer Square). Once the invoice is paid I will ship.
Shipping:
- Shipping for one kit is $8
- Add a second kit to the box shipping is $12
- Orders of over two kits will be exact shipping.
Kits:
Aurora Borealis
- $75
Strata
- $55
- available in turquoise/black or red/black
Gray Plaid
- $48
Triangular Pouch
- $42
- available in red/black, blue/black or tan/black
French Bread
- $50
Oui!
- $23
- colors available: orange, blue, green, purple or brown
Yesterday
- $38
Zoe
- $70
- available in tan/black only
Faded Dreams
- SALE PRICE $38 reg. price $55
- available in red/orange only
PAPER KITS: I also have these paper kits available. If you are interested in a paper kit email me and we can talk colors. In the order they are pictured below:
- Vijf – $35
- Houndstooth – $40
- Paper Envelopes – $45
- Peripheral -$40
Let me know if you are interested in any of the kits listed.
Take care and stay healthy!
~ annetta
Baskets to watch for in 2019
Well I haven’t done a lot of blogging lately, but I have kept busy.
Last week I taught five classes at the Association of Michigan Basketmakers convention, my last event of 2018. It was a wonderful time, beautiful scenery, amazing baskets and great people. Join us in 2019!
And now that I am home and back in the studio…
Here’s what I have been doing:
- weaving
- painting paper
- writing patterns updating my teaching schedule
- weaving (my happy place)
- writing proposals
- cutting kits
- taking pictures of baskets
- weaving
I figured it was time to post some of my new work. These are some of the baskets I have been proposing to teach at events in 2019.
Read more
September Adventures
September was a month of travel … I left home on August 31; my itinerary included places, friends, family and the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild – Tidal Twining Retreat. September 26 and 6000+ miles later, I made it home to find Billy Owens and my husband grilling steaks. Billy taught for my guild the next day. That in a nutshell was the whirlwind of my September. I wasn’t sure how much of my adventure I’d share with all of you. After sorting through pictures, I wanted to share everything, but when I started writing the blog it quickly got wordy and long. So I put it on the backburner. Today I decided to post lots of pictures and a few words about my adventure.
Weavin’ on Route 66
Weavin’ on Route 66, the 2018 Missouri Basketweavers Guild Convention, was a huge success. The event was held at the Route 66 Holiday Inn Southwest in St. Louis, Missouri August 2 – 5. Basketweavers filled the hotel with laughter, great conversation and, of course, beautiful baskets.I taught four basket classes, vended and exhibited, so it was a busy weekend. 🙂 But, oh, So.Much.Fun!
June – basket classes and baskets
These things make me smile… baskets and basket classes.
I was able to spend much of the month weaving and have several new baskets to show for it. July looks like it will be full of proposal and pattern writing and kit preparation, but I promise to post pictures of my new baskets. But we are talking about June now – so
Baskets
I love sweet grass and I love coiled baskets and I love Dianne Stanton’s work – so I was very excited to acquire her award winning piece “Niche’. It is a piece I will treasure.
And this month, the NBO summer issue arrived, the Member’s in Print edition. I was honored to have one of the thirty eight baskets chosen. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was! Read more
Stateline Friends Weaving Retreat 2018
What a wonderful time. First, a big thank you to Pam Feix and Debbie Cates and their host of volunteers. You put on a wonderful event! A great facility, well run, delicious food, and lots and lots of wonderful baskets and basket weavers. It is hard to explain how 400 people weaving, shopping and visiting in one big room can be so much fun – so let me invite you to join us next year in Richmond, Indiana! [April 11 – 13, 2019 www.statelinefriends.com]
Here’s a peak at the SFWR 2018 from my corner of the room …
Look at all those people … Read more
Determining Lasher Length
When I first started weaving someone told me that the length of the lasher needed to be two and a half times the circumference of the basket. So I would wrap the lasher around the basket two and a half times; if it was at least that long, I would start lashing. Unfortunately, I often found the lasher was too short. So I assumed that I had heard wrong, maybe it should be three times around, but that didn’t work consistently either. It was so frustrating to have my lasher run out one or two stakes from being finished!!
So, being me, I started to analyze when I ran out and when I didn’t. Which was correct – two and a half times around the basket or three times around the basket or …?? I took notes, lots of notes. I know, I know, you are thinking this lady is crazy and you are probably right, but I did learn a lot!
Read more
Spring (??) Basket Classes
My March was filled with traveling and teaching basket classes- I put on over 3200 miles, traveled through nine states and taught 18 basket classes. It was busy. It was fun. I am tired. Since all of my miles brought me south of Wisconsin, I was hoping to experience spring. There were signs … wild daffodils in Kentucky, redbud in North Carolina. And I was able to enjoy coffee outside with a dear friend. However, winter was also evident – two days of snow in North Carolina and at least six inches of that white stuff on the ground in the Virginia mountains. All the while my husband kept reporting signs of spring at home. So I came home 🙂
I’ve been home a few days – now that I am settled in, I thought I would share some pictures (well, okay, a lot of pictures – I did teach a lot). Then I plan retreat to the studio to weave 🙂 the best kind of therapy.
My first event was Woven Together in Western Kentucky
New Basket Patterns
Well, I am packed and ready to hit the road in the morning. Woven Together in Western Kentucky – here I come.
It was wonderful to have four months at home and in the studio. I didn’t do everything on my ever growing list, but I did cross off a fair number of items – including a much needed winter vacation to a warmer part of the world!
And now before my travel schedule takes over my life, I thought I would release my six newest patterns. Read more
The Mystery Basket
An Exercise in Creativity
Last year, ten members of my local basket weaving guild participated in the Mystery Basket Project. It’s a great way to encourage creativity. We had several months to weave our project, and I am not exaggerating when I say I stared at the contents of my bag for months before I had my first idea!
In a nutshell here’s how it works:
Participants will be given a number when they sign up. Then they will go through their basket, craft and art supplies and put 10 items in a paper grocery bag. This bag is sealed, labeled with the participant’s number and given to the organizer.
Creative Activities to Practice
I am glad so many of you enjoyed my thoughts on Creativity and Excellence. And now, as promised, here are some of the things you can do to encourage creativity. These are things I do – things I practise. It is not a list of rules, it is a decision to learn and to grow and to make things – this is my life. I hope you will find some of these practices helpful.
Surround yourself with books and patterns, your favorite baskets, art, color and just enough weaving material to make your hands itchy to weave. Books inspire me. A table with a project in process or reed in a variety of beautiful colors make me want to touch. Beautiful things make me smile.
Creativity and Excellence
I have been thinking about this topic for a long time, years in fact. I believe that focusing on excellence, on developing and fine tuning our skills, encourages creativity. In my experience, a lifetime of making things, including twenty five years of basket weaving, I find the pursuit of excellence to be the key to creativity. This principle is also evident when you look at other artists and the progression of their work.
Mastery
Malcom Gladwell has made popular the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to master or become ‘good’ at something. That’s 10,000 hours of work! And the wicker basketmaker’s school in Lichtenfels, Germany (Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Flechtwerkgestaltung) has a three year basket weaving program. That’s right, willow weavers in Germany go to school full time for three years, after which time they graduate and begin their basket weaving careers as Wickerwork Designers.
Fall Basket Kit Sale
I have concluded my travels for the year, and my 2018 travel/teaching schedule doesn’t begin until March of 2018. I have all kinds of ideas to weave up and things I want to do … but first, as promised, I am having another kit sale. It will be short – starts today, November 8, and ends on November 17. Many of the kits I have on sale, I will no longer be making and some kits I only have 2 or three left. When they’re gone, they are gone!!
Shipping, same deal as before: $5 for one (1) kit, 7.50 for two (2) kits, $10 for three (3) kits, 12.50 for four (4) kits and $15 for five (5) or more kits.
Here’s what I have available:
An experiment in 5/5 twill; careful placement of stakes and weavers brings out the arrow design. The rim is overlayed and double lashed with waxed linen. Finished Size of Basket: 12″ diameter x 10″ high.
October Classes and Color
Well, October has come and gone. My month started with a trip west to see family. The Bighorns in Wyoming were snow covered, brilliant colored aspen and birch trees lined the valleys in Montana and the sugar beet harvest was in full swing in Alberta. I was thankful for clear roads and time with people I love.
Then it was home and time for October classes. Read more
I love your Beaded Ring Basket. They make wonderful gifts. I am having trouible finding the 5/32″ black ash (FO) for rimming. Any suggestions on where I can go to find this?
Hmm that’s a good question. Try Red Valley Splint.
What is the name of the basket you have on your email post – the diagonal plaited basket with two handles??? Love it.
The basket is called ‘Zoe’ I am weaving it and writing the pattern right now 🙂
I finished the four strand braid basket with beads . A bit of a challenge to figure out, the video was great. Live the way the beads went in. A fun little basket.
Great!! Glad the video helped!
Beautiful baskets! Especially love the miniatures on the trees! Thanks for sharing.
I notice the comment about the 4 strand brad basket with beads. I am looking for a basket pattern that uses beads in the basket. What do you suggest? Thank you for the help.
Shirley, I have one basket that incorporates beading in the weave: Beaded Ring Basket
I also know that Susan Coyle has some beautiful basket patterns with beads. I am not sure if she has a web site, but you may be able to find her patterns on basketpatterns.com
I hope this is a good start for you.
Hi Annette,
I’m making your Twines and Braids pattern, and am in need of more beads for this basket. May I ask where you purchased
them, so I can order more?
Thank you!!!
Betty G