Merry Christmas

    At Christmas and always,

may you find

happiness,

peace

 and joy.

 

May your home be filled with the warmth and beauty of Christmas!

 

Happy New Year!

Sharon

A Weekend of Baskets

Carroll County Artists Studio Tour

December 7 & 8

10am – 5pm

Come visit me at the 7th annual Carroll County Artists Studio Tour this Saturday and Sunday.  I will be joining Carolyn Seabolt and Toni Javins at Cat Tracks Studio (stop #6) located at 811 Rolling Ridge Road in Westminster. We will be selling fine crafts, paintings, jewelry, photography, fiber arts, baskets and more! I will be demonstrating basket weaving during the day.  The tour is family–friendly and it’s free to visit!  Hope to see you there.

Also on Sunday December 8……

 

Opening Reception at the Galleries at Quiet Waters

Annapolis, MD

2 to 4 pm

 

 My baskets are part of the Form & Fabric V: Artistic Gifts of the Season show at the gallery.  The baskets will be on display for sales through January 5^th, 2014.  For more information visit the Quiet Waters website:  www.fqwp.org

 

Gallery of Gifts

Let the holiday shopping begin! 

My baskets are currently on display for sale at the Carroll County Arts Center in Westminster, MD. 


This is the place to purchase unique holiday gifts made by local artists.    The gallery will be open until December 23rd.   www.CarrollCounyArtsCouncil.org

Weaving Sampler

I took a basket workshop lead by Debbie Hurd, a basket maker from Arkansas. www.basestoweave.com 

I completed a round basket with a wooden base that showcases several weaving techniques.  The basket has bands of triple twining, triple twine arrows, a lacey variation of French randing and a unique rim embellishment.

Black dyed reed offers a strong contrast to the natural cream color of the reed.

"Weaving Your Cares Behind" Weekend

I spent this weekend in Bedford, PA attending the Basketweavers Guild of Bedford County 7th Annual Retreat.  I took 2 classes taught by Dianne Gleixner from Brookville, WI.  www.diannegleixnerbaskets.com    It was a fun weekend of basket making,







The first basket I made was a colorful cathead basket.  The spokes and weavers are space dyed with two shades of rust.  This method of dying the reed give a variegated appearance to the basket.  This basket features 2 bands of triple twining outlining a contrasting band along the top edge.



 

 
The second basket I made featured smoked reed,  a wooden base and a swing handle.  A bottom band of triple twining  and a continuous weave to create a spiral design on the basket sides.  The basket was completed with a decorative round reed overlay.

 

 



Hen Baskets

I wove a series of Hen Baskets varying the size and color combinations to make each distinctive.

 This set uses brown and cream reed. The side opens are 8" in diameter.  One hen basket  is primarily brown with cream highlights, while the other hen basket is the reverse.  It is cream with a band of brown.



 

 

The second set of hen baskets are smaller, with only a 6" diameter opening.  They don't have as wide a pocket.  One is cream only and the second is multicolor with a band of cream reed.

 

 

 

Cat Head Basket

West Virginia basketmaker Gail Hutchinson instructed a class at the 2013 Weaving Odyssey in Gettysburg, PA sharing her expertise with twills and hand shaping. During her class I made a cat head basket that included a three rod wale with a step-up, a 1-2 twill, and hills and valleys of  increasing and decreasing color reed. The rim is finished with waxed linen.













Forming base of cat head










My second basket began with a small cat head base.  The sides were then woven straight up to make a tall thin basket.

Weaving in Gettysburg

I spent the weekend weaving in Gettysburg.  The Central Pennsylvania Basket Weaver's Guild hosted the 2013 Weaving Odyssey featuring workshops taught by gifted weavers and teachers from throughout the United States .  Classes were offered from Thursday evening through Sunday morning.






 The first workshop I took was taught by Marla Helton, a mixed media weaver from Indiana.  Beginning with palm inflorescence as spokes  I wove a tapestry of mixed fibers and textures.  The weaving was attached to a table top frame.  One weaving has a purple color scheme and the second weaving has a blue and yellow color scheme.

Christmas in July

 
Even though the holidays are month away I made some early Christmas decorations.  Using cream and colored flat reed I wove a tapered round basket to be inverted as a bell shape. 











I added a jingle bell, ribbon hanger and a bow to complete the the look.  The reed bell is ready to be hung.

Hand Felted Ring on a Gourd

I spent the past week participating in activities at Common Ground on the Hill at McDaniel College.  One class I took was Exploring Wet and Dry Felting using  Navajo-Churro wool.  Instructor Roy Kady is a master craftsman and shepherd from the Navajo Nation reservation and he shared his knowledge of his culture and his craft throughout the class.

The first project was to create a wet felted ring.  Once the ring was dry I attached it to the top of a painted gourd using wax linen cord.  I added beads around the top as well.

First Friday's at Eclecticity

During the month of July my baskets will be featured  in the Wickes Reading Room at Eclecticity along with my friend Leah Spencer's mixed media paintings on wood.  The opening for the month long exhibit is this Friday, July 5th from 5pm until 7pm.  The gallery is located at 13 Johns Street in downtown Westminster.





 Hope to see you on Friday evening. If not, stop by Electicity sometime this month.  Contact Eclecticity  at 240-409-4863 for more details.

 

Blue Green Egg Basket

    

Summer time brings opportunities for trips to the beach and time in the water.        

  I associate the beach with cool color schemes of blue and green, so it was time to weave a summer time beach basket.  This 10" diameter egg basket using blue and green dyed reed does just that.

Happy Mother's Day !

You are never too young or too old to start making baskets.  Continuing last years Mother's Day blog post tradition, I've found a photo from 1989 taken by my dear friend Rebecca.  I am enjoying a summer day making baskets with my son and daughter.

My hair is grayer, my kids are grown, but I'm still making baskets. Love, friendships, and baskets all stand the test of time.  Happy Mother's  Day to all!



10 x 10 Exhibit

I created this 2D woven color study entry for the Carroll County Arts Center's 10th Anniversity 10 x10 exhibit.



 More than 200 works of art, all measuring exactly 10 inches by 10 inches will be on display from April 18th  through June 7th.  Each piece of art will be sold for $100 each.

Large Egg Basket

Once again, I experimented with multi-colored flat reed as I wove this large, 16" in diameter egg basket.  I alternated rows of the colored reed with rows of natural cream reed.  I started with the colored reed  in the God's Eye on each side of the basket  and ended with the cream reed .

It is important to keep both sides of the egg  basket even as you form the two humps that make the distinctive shape of an egg basket.  I continually check the eveness of the sides as I add additonal spokes to the basket as I weave.














The multi-colored reed is from a space dyed flat reed coil made up of periwinkle, hunter green and mauve. One color bleeds into the next on the flat reed giving a variegated color appearance when woven

Hen Basket

This is a large Hen Basket.  The inside diameter is 12" and the two side openings are 10" in diameter. The basket is a natural reed color with two wide bands of color on each side of the handle.  The multi-colored reed is from a space dyed flat reed coil made up of periwinkle, hunter green and mauve.  One color bleeds into the next on the flat reed giving a variegated color appearance when woven.

Woven Color Study

 





Dyed reed can be woven into colorful repetative patterns.   Often the the patterns are woven into the sides of baskets or bottoms of low sided trays.   I decided to weave a reed color study into a square pattern and insert the design into a frame for  display.















I started the weaving just as I would to make a basket bottom, without the extra reed needed to weave  sides. 

                          After I achieved the desired size I folded
                         the reed  back onto itself.






I covered the back of the weaving with a felt square before I placed
the weaving into a frame.

Happy New Year !

During the past year I shared a little history and background for each of the baskets I made and posted on this blog.  This year as I finish a new basket I will post a photograph of the basket along with a brief description about the basketweaving process. I hope you will continue to enjoy viewing my baskets.

The new year is a time to inventory basket supplies after a busy fall of basketmaking.  I try to create baskets using the supplies I have on hand. This allows me to design baskets of various sizes and variations of basic basket styles.  I combine reed of various colors and sizes  not dictated by a specific basket style.


Small square-based basket using blue and violet splints and cream and colored weavers.

 










Round basket with green splints and a bamboo handle.