basketry Recommendations - For all ages

BOOKS for ADULTS

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Appalachian White Oak Basketmaking: Handing Down the Basket

by Rachel Nash Law
University of Tennessee Press, 1991

In an era when baskets served as basic containers for gathering, transporting, and storing goods, many settlers in the Central and Southern Applachian mountain region found the white oak the best material for basketmaking. This book surveys the varied forms and techniques that evolved as basketmakers selected, prepared, and wove this wood. The authors display special appreciation of white oak basketry as an important dimension of regional material culture. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, including interviews with traditional basketmakers in the Central Applachian region, Rachel Law and Cynthia Taylor establish a framework for classifying, comparing and indentifying Applachian basketry forms. In demostrating how details of basket construction, technique and style can be linked to specific makers, regions and ethnic traditions, the authors have created a resource essential for cultural historians, collectors and craftspeople.

Art of the Basket

by Bryan Sentance
Thames & Hudson, 2001

This volume presents a survey of basketmaking worldwide and shows common solutions to design and construction within a wide range of styles. Sentance(lecturer, writer, and teacher of art) discusses topics including natural and synthetic materials; techniques from twining and plaiting to coiling, linking and looping; decorating with natural colors, dyes, embroidery and other embellishments; baskets for everyday use; and wider applications such as art, hats, architecture and transport. Also contains advice on collecting and 830-plus illustrations, 697 of which are in color.

Basketmaking

by Kay Johnson
Batsford, 1991

Fifteen practical and decorative projects for the budding basketmaker, and lots of inspirational ideas for someone more experienced. Each project will teach you new techniques and show you how to use anything from cane and willow to hedgerow woods and montbretia leaves.

Basketry of the Appalachian Mountains

by Sue H. Stephenson
Van Nostrand Reinhold

Describes the origins and uses of Appalachian baskets. Covered are splint work, wicker work, coiled straw, hearth brooms, dyestuffs, and the cleaning and conservation of baskets. The book is filled with photographs and large illustrations of basket techniques.

Basketry: the Shaker Tradition: History, Techniques, Projects

by John E. McGuire
Lark Books, 1988

Briefly discusses Shaker philosophy and traditions, shows examples of their baskets, tools, and basket making techniques and provides instructions for making one's own baskets.

Baskets: a Book for Makers and Collectors

by Billie Ruth Sudduth
Hand Books Press, 1999

Within this book you will find stunning color photographs of baskets to weave and baskets to collect. Step-by-step instructions and clear demostration photos skillfully guide the maker, while a continuing portfolio of works by master basket weavers demonstrates extraordinary variety and beauty.

Cane, Rush and Willow: weaving with natural materials

by Hilary Burns
Firefly Books

Burns lives and works in England, where the tradition of growing rush and willow for basketry is well established. This book has an interesting section on growing and harvesting in addition to the more usual material on tools and techniques. Step-by-step projects include baskets, chair seats, garden structures and an Irish coracle (curragh), a traditional wicker and canvas boat.

Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Arts

by Robert T. Coffland
Art Media Resources with Tai Gallery, 1999

This book introduces the reader to the world of contemporary Japanense bamboo arts. Twenty of Japan's leading bamboo artists are featured in portraits and through their stunning bamboo baskets and sculptures. The artists include the two Living National Treasures of Japan, Iizuka Shokansai and Maeda Chikubosai II, as well as artists of traditional and contemporary styles. The author gives the reader the necessary background information to understand how this art form evolved over the last hundred and fifty years and the current challenges the field faces.

Contemporary Wicker Basketry: projects, tecniques, inspirational designs

by Flo Hoppe
Lark Books 1996

Includes instructions for a variety of wicker baskets and provides information on different techniques, materials and tools, selecting color, and creating lids and handles. There ia also a chapter of step-by-step projects, many showing Japanese influence, and a photo gallery of selected basket art by international designers.

Handmade Baskets

by Lyn Siler
Lark Books, 1991

This title offers instructions for making twenty-eight decorative baskets in a variety of designs.

Hopi Basket Weaving: Artistry in Natural Fibers

by Helga Teiwes
University of Arizona Press, 1996

Basket weaving is an outlet for artistry and a showcase for the skills of Native Americans. The Hopi basketmakers responded to the interest and patience of photographer Teiwes, the author of other books on Southwest tribes, with interviews and extensive demostrations. Details of the flora used, drying methods, techniques for each kind of basket and an appreciation of the design forms used are all included. Rounding out the book are 128 of the author's photographs, 16 color plates and a map of the Hopi lands.

Indian Basketmakers of California and the Great Basin

by Larry Dalrymple
Museum of New Mexico, 2000

The tribes that once lived in the Southwest and present-day California and Nevada were some of the best basket-makers in the world, but time has diminished the materials, skills, and needs that resulted in the baskets. Collector Dalrymple got to know the few women and men there who still make baskets, and his knowledge forms the basis for this and the companion book, "Indian Basketmakers of the Southwest: the Living Art and Fine Tradition". Each chapter in Indian Basketmakers of California and the Great Basin is devoted to a specific group and begins with a brief history of the construction and use of baskets by the group, followed by a short description of materials and techniques. The discussion then turns to the weavers and their baskets. Not only does Dalrymple provide background on the weavers, but he also gives insight into their thoughts about weaving and how weaving has changed.

Indian Basketmakers of the Southwest: the Living Art and Fine Tradition

by Larry Dalrymple
Museum of New Mexico, 2000

This companion volume to "Indian Basketmakers of California and the Great Basin" documents basket making at the end of the 20th century. Dalrymple's discussions with basket makers enabled him to report on their learning processes, difficulties acquiring materials, individual styles and techniques, marketing issues, and family connections. He includes innovations and innovators as well as the influence of trading post owners and tribal governments in encouraging basket making and other arts.

Longaberger: an American Sucess Story

by Dave Longaberger
HarperBusiness, 2001

Explores the basket empire of entrepreneur Dave Longaberger, describing his upbringing in a large family and struggle with a learning disablity, his initial business enterprises and his unorthodox management philosophy.

Making the New Baskets: Alternative Materials, Simple Techniques

by Jane LaFerla
Lark Books, 1999

LaFerla's collection of projects by many designers highlights colorful contemporary baskets utilizing such unlikely materials as colored telephone wire, cut-up cereal boxes and plastic tubing.

Palmetto Braiding and Weaving

by Viva Jane Cooke
E. A. Seemann

This book preserves an ancient native craft usually handed down by word of mouth. There is history, tradition and poetry in patterns named lattice-point, double-shuffle, goose-eye, fishtail, close purl, fishpot and shooting-star.

Pine Needle Basketry: From Forest Floor to Finished Project

by Judy Morfield Mallow
Lark Books, 1996

Gives an overview of the materials and tools used to create pine needle baskets, introduces basic weaving techniques, includes instructions for creating a variety of projects, and includes photographs of existing pine needle objects.

Row Upon Row: Sea Grass Baskets of the South Carolina Lowcountry

by Dale Rosengarten
McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, 1986

Catalog of a traveling exhibition sponsored by the McKissick Museum.

Stout Hearts: Traditional Oak Basket Makers of the South Carolina Upcountry

by Gary Ward Stanton
Folk Arts Program of McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, 1988

Catalog published in conjunction with the traveling exhibition organized by the McKissick Museum, January 22, 1988 to February 1990.

The Complete Book of Basketry Techniques

by Sue Gabriel
David & Charles, 1991

The book's illustrations and text provide instruction on creating simple multi-purpose containers.

The Complete Book of Rush and Basketry Techniques

by Margery Brown
Larousse, 1983

Explains how to weave baskets in a variety of styles using cane, willow, rush, hedgerow material, corn and bamboo.

The Fine Art of California Indian Basketry

by Brian Bibby
Crocker Art Museum in association with Heyday books, 1996

For thousands of years California Indians have been making baskets, often for the most practical of reasons-for use as cradles, cooking and serving vessels, winnowing trays, and dozens of necessary functions. Over the centuries these baskets have evolved artistically as well, becoming what many consider to be among the world's most beautiful, sophisticated, and cherished art objects. Searching private collections and public museums throughout the country, over sixty stunning examples of California Indian basketry have been assembled, some over a hundred and fifty years old, some made within the last few years. Commenting upon each basket are native basketweavers, California Indian artists in other media, and scholars. Together they provide exciting and intimate insights into this world of intense beauty.

Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry

by Sarah H. Hill
University of North Carolina Press, 1997

Sarah Hill illuminates the history of Southeastern Cherokee women by examining changes in their basketry. Based in tradition and from locally gathered materials, baskets evoke the lives and landscapes of their makers. Indeed as, Weaving New Worlds reveals, the stories of Cherokee baskets and the women who weave them are intertwined and inseparable. Incorporatiing written, woven, and spoken records, Hill demonstrates that changes in Cherokee basketry signal important transformations in Cherokee culture.

KIDS BOOKS

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Baskets

by Meryl Doney
Franklin Watts, 1997

Presents a variety of basket styles from around the world including their different types of materials and simple instructions for making them.

The Basket Maker and the Spinner

by Beatrice Siegel
Walker, 1987

Tells the stories of the Indian basket weavers and colonial spinners of early America and discusses the preservation of their craft in a time of advanced technology. The lives and cultures of the native Americans and the colonial settlers are compared and contrasted in the accounts of the two women.

Weaving a California Tradition: a Native American Basketmaker

by Linda Yamane
Lerner Publications, 1997

The book follows eleven-year-old Carly Tex, a Western Mono Indian, as she learns the traditional art form of basket weaving from her mother and aunt. The book emphaizes the hard work involved, the importance of the tradition in Carly's family, and the fact that basket weaving is just one facet of her life as a contemporary American child.

WEBSITES

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Entwined with Life: Native American Basketry
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/baskets/

More than 500 works of basketry art-and the people who designed and wove them-are at the heart of our story. This exhibit features more than 500 Native American baskets from the Burke Museum's permanent collection, and more than 60 contemporary baskets loaned by their makers. This web site re-creates the Burke Museum's award-winning exhibit of the same name (appeared Oct. 26, 2000-May 6, 2001) "This exhibit is about how baskets are entwined with people's lives, and how basket makers are culture bearers; human cultural resources. We are focusing on people because of the importance of basket makers in their communities, and the importance of basket's in people's lives." Robin K. Wright, Burke Museum Curato of Native American Art

CAMIO-Catalog of Art Museum Images Online
http://plcmc.org/online/default.asp

CAMIO is a growing online collection documenting works of art from around the world. Images, text and multimedia represent a broad range of works of art from the collections of prominent museums, highlighting the creative output of cultures around the world, from prehistoric to contemporary times, and covering the complete range of expressive forms. CAMIO includes photographs, prints, sculpture, decorative arts and utilitarian objects, drawings and watercolors, costume and jewelry, textiles, architecture and more....