A Hand-Woven Life

I just want to take a break from the usual basketry-related post today to honor all of our veterans who selflessly served our country to keep us safe and free, and for those who are serving now.

It is an honor and a privilege to have family who have served in wars.  Words cannot express how grateful I am for their strength of character and their willingness to risk so much for all of us.

A few years ago, my Uncle Phil was featured in a newspaper article which told the story of his part in the Vietnam War.  In a battle that lasted all night, 140 Marines, some throwing rocks because they had run out of ammunition, held off about 500 North Vietnamese Troops. 

From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!

A few years ago I discovered a new, local business called Bender's Signs and Tees.  They offer  signs, screen printing, and various advertising specialties.  I had considered buying a car magnet in the past, but everything I found on the internet was so expensive, I just bagged the idea.

But when this new business opened up, I contacted them and found they offered a car magnet for $20! 

I ordered one right away and now it goes with me everywhere! 

Later on, I decided to buy a bunch of T- shirts and a few sweatshirts/hoodies, and gave them to my kids, my mom, my daughter's boyfriend....anyone who would take one! 

I even got myself an apron with the same logo, which is perfect to wear when teaching a class!

Steve Bender is so nice to work with, and customer service is very important to him.

Bender's also has water bottles, lanyards, hats, tote bags...all kinds of promotional items that he will personalize for your business.

Click HERE to see his portfolio, including the design he did for me!

Bender's has a NO MINIMUM policy, and will match any competitor's price!

Not local?  No problem....Steve will ship to you!

I love that I can advertise and have something cool to wear at the same time!

Remember last week I showed you some photos of a couple fryer baskets I bought on the cheap?

I vowed to change them into something better, to give them a new life and a new purpose.

After several fits and starts, trial and error, I finally did it.

It took me most of the day Saturday, between laundry, meals, and visiting my daughter and her fiancee who were here for the weekend, but I did it! 

Here is what I started with.

Then I took a big roll of something I found, laying around a building we own that used to be an old country store, that I thought was paper rope, (but my husband told me used to be sold as a type of twine that was used for tying bundles of wool together), a needle and some blue waxed linen thread.....

And I braided and stitched and came up with this.

I'd like to introduce you to a wonderful basket weaver I recently met via email.

Claudia Hopkins was interested in purchasing my vase basket pattern and had a few questions for me.

At the bottom of her email was a link to her website, so I went over to take a look!

What a marvelous weaver!

Here is one of her baskets:

Claudia is a wife and mother and resides in Rhode Island.

She learned to weave basket many years ago at classes that were being taught at a local library and fell in love with it.  Later, when the teacher retired, Claudia took over teaching.

Since then, her hobby has blossomed into a business, and she now sells her baskets at various arts and crafts shows, as well as two retail shops in her area, and online.

It always amazes me how very different weaver's styles there are, even when weaving the same basket.

I have heard that a weaver can recognize his/her own baskets in a flash among many, many other baskets.

I think that is very cool, and it means that when you purchase a basket from Claudia or any one of the many basket weavers around the country,  you are getting a truly unique work of art.

Claudia would love for you to stop over to her website and pay her a visit!

BasketsBy Claudia

Note:  Photos shared with permission by, and remain the sole property of, Claudia Hopkins.

Last week I was white-washing a few lamp shades I had woven.  My daughter was watching and

 thought it would be cool to use watered down gray paint instead of white on a basket.

I thought that was a great idea, so I did some experimenting.

First, I whipped up one of  Nancy Jacob's "Party Favor Baskets" that she generously shared.

Then I took my watery gray paint and brushed it on the basket.

I wasn't happy with the result.  It just looked like a bad paint job!

So I thought I would try dipping it in my walnut dye bath, THEN brush on the watery gray paint.

SUCCESS! 

Wow, it made the basket look SO OLD and weathered.....I loved it!

It had that same look that I love so much in my $5 wicker chair!

I've really taken to scouting around for junk lately.  I like to see what I can do with old stuff to recycle, upcycle, and repurpose it into something new.

So yesterday I found a couple things that I'd like to transform in some way.

Here they are.

Continue twining for three complete rows.  To end the twining, tuck the ends into the twining on the inside of the basket where you began.

Tuck all of the spokes down to the inside of the basket.   Your basket will now look like this:

To add the handle, take the piece of 1/4" flat/oval reed and insert one end at each corner between the first and second row of twining, inserting from the outside to the inside. (see photo)

To finish the handle you have several options.  You can simply tie a ribbon around the handle on each side where the flat/oval reed overlaps, like this:

Or you can take some more round reed and wrap the entire handle, or wrap just where the overlap is, like this: