2016 A Weaving Odyssey

 I spent an enjoyable weekend in Gettysburg, PA with the Central Pennsylvania Basket Weavers Guild.  From Thursday evening, Sept. 15 through Sunday, Sept 18 at noon the convention room at the Aspire Hotel was full of basket weavers practicing their craft and learning new techniques from master basket weavers.

Thursday evening I completed a small Nantucket Bell.  It was woven with natural cane on a mold.  The base and rim are cherry.  Denise Bendelwski from Magnolia, Delaware conducted the class.
The bell is 5" high by 3" diameter base.  

Friday and Saturday I took classes lead by Candace Katz from Springdale, Arkansas.  Both baskets started on a wooden base and use space dyed reed and natural reed. 


 The round basket is woven with  a 1-1-2-3 twill pattern forming the sides of the basket.  The top band uses two pieces of natural round reed in a four rod wale pattern.  It is 8" in diameter and the sides rise up 6 " before the handle is inserted.


The large oval basket is woven using a 2-3 twill pattern.  The top natural reed band is woven using Ti twinning and reverse Ti twinning.  The finished basket is 10" wide by 14" long and 7" high.

On Sunday, I shifted to using waxed linen to cover a small glass jar with a cork stopper.  Linda Scherz Allen from Rome, New York lead the class.  The twinned pattern creates a spiral as it goes around the 3" high bottle.

Market Basket

This long, thin Market Basket begins around a 9" x 14" handle.  Both natural flat reed and blue dyed reed make up the spokes.  The sides  are woven with flat reed and flat oval with a wide band of burlap over reed.   Burlap flowers are added to one side of the finished basket. 

The finished size is 21.5" long by 9" wide  by 8" high sides.    This is a variation of a market basket pattern by Sharon Klusmann.