Wabanaki Basket Weekend

I took my friend Cheryl home to Maine for Presidents Day weekend and we had a basket themed weekend.

Saturday we went to the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance in Old Town at the Wabanaki Arts Center Gallery. We learned about the basket makers, materials and techniques. We were able to view antique baskets as well as brand new baskets of every shape and size (berries, corn, acorn and pumpkin shaped baskets). All the basketmakers use traditional materials like sweet grass and ash. For more information and pictures visit the Alliances website. http://www.maineindianbaskets.org

The next day Cheryl and I tackled our berry basket kit made by Basket Weaving 101. The kits are very nice and have great supplies except the photocpied instructions were a bit hard to follow. We are the strike out on your own type of people and really enjoyed the whole process. (Jeff was of course a hindrance to our crafting, but we persevered.) We tried to incorporate some of the design elements that we saw at the Gallery and were happy with the loops and twists that we made. You really have to soak the reeds well, and the colors bled a little in our hot water, but that made it that much more fun and colorful. The trickiest part is finishing the top of the basket, it took me several tries but I am very happy with the outcome. Here are our baskets. (The pink one is Cheryls and the green one is mine)