Threads 115: Where it all began, learning and teaching basketry
The next series of basketry Threads will be discussing my experience of learning and teaching basketry in Canada.
Where it all began…
When I became interested in learning more about basketry it was 1975. I was in my third year at Sheridan College School of Design and had to make a 3-D fibre sculpture. I remembered I had made a basket when about age 10 using round reed. For this project I used weeping willow which was very successful and greatly admired at school - as nobody had ever seen a handmade basket like this. This sparked my interest and I managed to find an indigenous basket maker living on the Southampton reserve.
I set off on a beautiful May morning with my daughter, and it was there I met my first basket maker - Irene Koogay! I had anticipated to learn from her how to make the baskets and to my surprise she had already made two beautiful baskets specially for me. She used black ash and sweet grass which grew on the reserve. She showed me where and how they had split the black ash. She must have spent hours collecting sweet grass and braiding yards and yards to weave the sides and the top of the basket. The smell in the car driving home was wonderful! I can’t believe she only charged me $25 for each basket.
My project ended up being of a photo essay because I did not learn much basket making.
My desire to learn basket making continued. I phoned the CNIB because I knew they had taught basketry but I had no success. Then I discovered there was a basket maker who sold baskets in the Saint Lawrence Market in Toronto who came from somewhere near Stratford. My next trip took me to visit him. He had immigrated to Canada in the 50s and was using wild willow which grew on his farm. He made frame baskets and dog baskets. I came home with a round frame basket which he explained to me how to make. So I still had yet to make a basket. Of course I had no material and set off in search of wild willow.
While visiting England in the late 70s, I finally made a basket. I sat in somebody’s garden and made a small willow shopping basket. This was the first time I had actually been taught.
In England, they teach basket makers their first baskets using ground reed, so they have already learned the techniques before they use willow. Lately I have been reflecting on how this is a good idea as willow isn’t to an easy material to find, prepare and weave with.
After I returned from my trip, I shared my knowledge with a few members of the Weavers and spinners in Oakville, where I was living at the time, and was then invited to go to Halliburton to teach basketry for a weekend. I was using round reed at the time and everybody made waste paper baskets with a wooden base. It was an easy way to teach and introduce different techniques, including a foot border and the top border, and end up with quite a good looking basket. I then moved on to teach frame baskets, using grapevine hoops and dyed flat reed.
I was very fortunate to be supported by the Ontario Arts Council in the early 80s with grants to go to England, Sweden and Japan to learn more about basketry. I will share more about these experiences in upcoming Threads issues. Stay tuned.