Soooooooooo, I went to the river this past weekend and took my friend, Susan Marie with me. She wanted to teach me how to make baskets. Ok...........so she and Billy, the helper dude, trudged off and easily found grapevine growing in a palm tree, cut a huge swath of it off and dragged it back to our deck. Then, he went off and came back with what looked like a 50 gallon trough that had been used to feed goats and we proceeded to soak the vines after we cleaned all the leaves off of them.
Susan twisted the largest sections into circles to serve as the handles and the perimeter for our baskets. She brought handspun yarns, raffia and tools to use so our hands wouldn't get so tired. Check out the baskets in the background that she made in the past using the same techniques she was teaching me.
Here she is hard at work trying to get finished before we had to leave Monday. It surprised me how many hours go into making something that looks so simple and primitive. I kept picturing women over the millenia using indiginous materials to make these highly functional items for their homes. What a cool skill to learn!
Whew! Susan finished hers and helped me to get mine completed just before we had to pack up and leave. Thanks, Susan, for another fun, crafty, girls weekend at the river. Oh, yeah, and we ate really well, too! Lots of grilling, baking, and creating went on in the kitchen......3 meals a day!
Ready to make another one,
Debbie
No comments:
Post a Comment