About me: I grew up in NYC and taught in the Hudson Valley for 32 years. As an educator I have been involved in many aspects of education from coaching JV basketball to writing curriculum and grants. I became interested in basket making about 12 years ago and was fortunate enough to find Wendy Jensen in Great Barrington MA. Although I have taken classes from some of the best, both Wendy and Alice Ogden from NH have become my inspiration and my support basis.
After looking at some of the baskets on carriages I started thinking "I can do that!". So the idea of combining both driving and basketmaking came about. Carriage drivers have specific needs with specific dimensions so that has become my focus. Kathleen Conklin realized I could make her the unique baskets she wanted to add to her carriage and it has been rewarding for both of us. Ask Kathleen about her "rat basket" or maybe you'll see it in 2009 as she and the mules travel around.
About baskets:Baskets are one of the two oldest crafts known to man. They belong to no one group and are specific to no region or any people of the world. Every culture made baskets and they were made of whatever materials were at hand that could be easily gathered. They were made to perform specific tasks and so their form was determined by their designated function. . Even today baskets cannot be made by machine. They can only be produced by hand. So even the cheapest imported basket was made by someone somewhere.
Overtime, different cultures developed specific forms, patterns and added decorative elements. That enables us to recognize which people or which area of the world they are from. Today we usually identify baskets by giving them a name and stating the materials they are made from. Baskets have now become mostly decorative and the use of alternative -not traditional materials is not uncommon. Basically there are three types of baskets; coiled, twined or woven. The tools used to make baskets are simple and few. Some type of knife, an implement used to push between spokes, a comfortable chair and usually water in which to soak the material making it more pliable. Not using lots of equipment and being able to make a functional object with your hands is what first attracted me to making baskets. I have found a peace of sorts by using my hands to weave and shape... think of it as putting the loose ends of the world together.
