Thursday, October 11, 2007

Bamboo Baskets

I mentioned the other day that I was going to take a workshop from Jiro Yonezawa. And here are the results......
The first is a plaited twill basket. We started out making a flat 3/3 twill structure that was 30 bamboo pieces by 30 bamboo pieces. We then shaped it around a piece of PVC pipe that Jiro had cut to size and put a bottom in. Once we finished weaving the twill structure, we finished the top and bottom using pieces of half round reed and caning to hold it in place. We also did a decorative arrow stitch on the top again using the caning. I understand this structure perfectly.


The next piece that we did was a random weave basket. It starts out with a hexagonal structure and once you have the basic basket form you randomly start adding pieces of bamboo to the form. We used medium sized bamboo strips for the base form and thicker and thinner strips for the random part. My grasp of this form is some what shakier than for the plaited twill. Probably because the twill structure is one that I am very familiar with and the hexagon structure is not. There is also a strange locking thing that needs to be done each time you add a new weaver. But I have a chance to learn a little more because Linda had arranged for another workshop tomorrow. I can hardly wait! Except that I wish that I was feeling a little better. I have a bit of a head cold. Again. School's in and the viruses are out. Oh joy.

And I suppose that while I am here I should give you a moth update. I have bagged all the wool on the wall and put Vapona strips in the bags. I ended up with 12 large garbage bags full. And I am not done yet. There are still some yarns that students have had lying around that may or may not be infested. And all of the cottons that the larva may not be interested in, but if eggs are stuck to them and they hatch next to some wool, I am back to square one. All of the left over yarn and any student yarn will be dealt with next week when the first batch is ready to come out. And then I have to put all 12 garbage bags of yarn back on the shelf in some sort of order. Oh my.

6 comments:

kneek said...

Your baskets are fantastic! I love the shapes and patterns created by the intersecting lines.

Anonymous said...

Having held the baskets in my hands, I can safely say that they are superb. The twill one in particular is so precisely crafted it looks like it could have been done by a machine.

Jackie never ceases to amaze me with her skills. She often tries new things and picks them up so quickly it's frightening. Come to think of it, so does our daughter, Mira. She got her mom's talent too.

I'm really glad that she gets to share all of her creations with the world out there. She's so busy with the day to day family things most of the time, and they rob her of much time and a lot of energy I know she'd love to put into her art and craft. But when she does get the things going it's great that you all get to see it.

Oh, and that random basket is a lot stronger than you would think. The construction makes it quite tough.

Jackie's DH

Leigh said...

Wow! Very nice baskets. I hope your head cold passes quickly as well as those moths!

David T. Macknet said...

Wow! What fun!

Christine said...

Excellent basketry! You know when you re-shelf all of that yarn, random is an order! Or enlist the students so they can "hands on get to know their fibers". ha-ha!

Rhonda the Stitchingnut said...

Love the baskets.

Oh no Moths ... I've been out of the loop so long ... must read what's been happening. But moths! Oh no.