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I started making baskets in high school with reed I could buy at the dime store, and it took me 20 years to realize I could weave with stuff that grows in my own yard. What changed my life was taking a class in rib-style willow basketry taught by Jo Campbell-Amsler at Sievers School of Fiber Arts. It was my first basketry class, and it couldn't have been more perfect. By lunch on the first day, Jo had taken us into the willow patch to cut our own materials. By the end of the day I had completed a modest basket and I couldn't wait to go cut more willow to make another. For several years after that class I wove mostly rib-style willow baskets. Once I started to explore looping and coiling, I felt such a strong connection that I knew I could focus my work on stitching techniques and be interested and challenged for the rest of my life. It took me a while longer to realize I could even use materials I was already growing in coiled vessels.
The willow I use for coiling is the stuff I used to compost after sorting my harvest because it was too fine for rib-style. I also coil with home-grown Siberian iris leaves. The process of making a vessel with natural materials begins when the snow melts and my crops start their season's growth, continues as I harvest and dry the material, then "mellow" it to make it flexible. It's good to remember that to everything there is a season, or two or three.
In my coiling, I mostly use a technique called the Basketmaker's Buttonhole Stitch. It's an open-core technique, meaning the stitches are spaced so that the core material is visible. In many other open-core techniques, beautiful patterned stitches are the first thing you notice about the basket. With this technique, though, the stitches generally recede into the fabric of the basket. But each stitch is so secure that you can use it as an anchor point for any type of work you want to do on the surface, and the stitching holds securely while I manipulate the core.
Coiling is not a fast technique, so coiled baskets are often pretty small. As I stitch a coiled piece the structure makes me think about my family and other people in my life, how we're all linked to what went before us and how we support what will come after, no matter what forces try to unravel us. My work spirals around, mostly moving forward but sometimes drawing in, reaching out, or going back to start over. I like side trips that seem to go nowhere yet add richness to the journey. Every stitch is an opportunity to fill in a gap, take a second chance, and find beauty in the way all things are connected.
Learn About Fuegian Coiling
Coiling Workshop Topics
Fuegian Coiling Workshop Topics
Lecture Topics
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