The Basketmaker’s Month: May/June
It’s bark harvesting time!
Thursday May 16th, 6:00 – 7:30 pm EST
Which materials can you harvest for basketry in your backyard during the early summer? In this webinar I’ll be talking about BARK. This is the perfect time of year to look for trees and shrubs to harvest bark from. I’ll cover how to spot a good ‘basket tree’, how to harvest bark and process it, what tools you need, which species provide the best bark for basketry and everything else you need to know to get this material ready for making baskets. Bark is an incredible material and learning to use it is a labor of love that is worth every second. It only needs to start with one branch…
If you can’t make it you can sign up and get access to the recording for 3 weeks afterwards.
The format of this webinar/online class will be 1 hour of lecture and slideshow followed by up to 30 minutes of Q and A. It will be an educational and helpful experience for those of you who are out there eager to open your hearts and get your hands dirty with harvesting!
Why create this webinar series?
Some of the most common questions I get asked as a basketry teacher revolve around which basketry plants are season at any given time. What are the best ways to identify these plants? How are they harvested, processed, and stored? If you do have a basketry plant growing near you how can you tell if it is good quality for weaving? How can we approach harvesting with an open heart and keen mind in service of being respectful of the land? These questions and more were the impetus for starting this series on how to harvest basketry plants. I look forward to continuing it this year with several more monthly classes!
