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

Biophils Among Us

Just being surrounded by bountiful nature, rejuvenates and inspires us.– E.O. Wilson

Relax, most of us are biophils and always have been. But now we have a word for loving green things and nature: biophilia.

What is biophilia? The dictionary meaning is “love of life.”  Human beings are hard-wired to live in touch with the natural environment, something many of us know intuitively, but in recent times we seem to have lost our way. Being connected with nature and living green things relaxes us, improves our ability to think and be creative, and generally improves health, wellbeing and productivity, but sadly too many of us spend too much time in sterile environments, far removed from the natural world.

Biophilic design, which is an attempt to address this deficit, is having an impact on architecture and is currently the fastest growing trend in interior design. Buildings are being built to meld with the outdoors, to include living plants and natural wood and stone in the interior, to create a more humane environment with the use of building materials, lighting and decoration.

While the innovative work taking place in the business world and public spaces is inspiring and fascinating, how does this apply to, say, your own apartment or house in the suburbs? How can we use nature in our own homes to calm, sooth, inspire and relax us?

terrarium

A few suggestions:

·     Live plants in the house was biophilic before biophilia was a thing. Take it a step further and build a terrarium.

·     Make a statement with wood: an unfinished wood stump as an end table, rough wood picture frames. 

·     Add river rocks, branches, preserved leaves and flowers to your décor.

·     Add moss to a floral centerpiece, terrarium, or as a wall decoration, either live or preserved.

Take something simple and “ordinary” from the outdoors and use it to make a statement: flowers, twigs, rocks.

As a true biophil, you will find even a small amount of natural décor has the power to rejuvenate and restore the human soul.

 What are you doing to restore your soul with nature?

Margaret