Coming soon: Adventures in Basket Weaving

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay 

A basket, because of its soul, must never be put in a dark or out of the way place. It must be free to dance around the world each night and to grow old. -author unknown

We’ve explored our forestland for numerous products that could be used in crafts, including Douglas fir, cedar and pine boughs for fresh holiday wreaths and swags. We’ve experimented with numerous ways to use fir, pine, hemlock, and alder cones in wreaths and wall hangings and even jewelry. Another avenue of interest, yet to be fully developed, is basket making.

I love baskets. My house is full of baskets, all sizes and shapes, but the ones worthy of special note are an antique willow basket my grandmother gave my mother when she first married my dad. The basket was old then, and that’s been over 70 years. I’m guessing it is around 150-170 years old. Mom used it as a clothes basket for many years.

Our antique willow basket

Mom made pine needle baskets as one of the many crafts (sewing, crochet, embroidery, quilting, painting) at which she excelled. The baskets were made of long-leaf pine (Pinus palustris) and raffia and we still keep several in her memory. The long-leaf pine grows in the southeastern United States and has needles as long as 18 inches, the longest in the world.

While the pine needles on our tree farm are not long-leaf, they are traditionally the most important pine needle used in basketry: Ponderosa pine. The fiber used to stitch the needles can be anything from raffia, which is imported, to local cedar bark, nettle, hemp twine or linen thread.

Pine needle baskets by Edith Garner

Bitter cherry, a medium-sized tree, also grows on our property. One grew in the corner of our yard when I was a child, and the Y-shaped trunk was my favorite hiding place. The bark can be split into strips and woven into waterproof baskets. 

We also have willow, which comes in many varieties and has a long tradition of being woven into baskets, such as our antique one.

Cedar is another species that grows on the farm, and the bark was used heavily by Native Americans for baskets, mats, clothing and other items. I read something recently that said blackberry vines could be woven into baskets, not something we would have thought to try.

A recent trip to Maryhill Museum in the Columbia River Gorge revealed the antiquity and creativity of the Native American basket makers. Visit the displays there, if you get a chance. This is such an ancient, time-honored tradition and we are looking forward to learning more.

We have a lot to learn! We will post our adventures as we explore creating baskets from the wild materials on our timberland. 

Margaret