Williamsburg Handled Market Basket
Jane Milner
How about making an absolutely gorgeous basket, to become a family heirloom, from a super-nice and easygoing teacher? Jane Milner is so popular among various regional guilds for these very characteristics.
This project is called the Williamsburg Handled Market Basket, featuring a filled and crow’s footed base, plaited sides, three so-called “rod arrows” in a dyed round reed, packed sides, and a lovely, hairpinned, braided border. Your choice of colors!
Materials for this 14″ by 17″ (at the top) basket are rattan reed, both natural and dyed, plus a hardwood Williamsburg handle. A color pattern is included.
If you’ve always wanted to try making a basket, or already know basketmaking and want to enjoy a relaxed workshop, Jane will guide you along your path toward this practical, yet beautiful work of art .
SKILL LEVEL: All levels.
EQUIPMENT: pencil to mark your reed, pen to take notes and put your name on the pattern. Pan to soak reed (a plastic dish pan works well), spray bottle to keep your reed moist, 2 plastic bags to put your soaked reed (one for natural, one for dyed), old towel to wipe dyed reed, seat cushion for your bum if you want extra padding under you, usual basketry tools. If you don’t have basket tools, I have tools you can borrow for the class. I will also have tools to sell if you wish to purchase them. Wear old clothes!
PRE-WORKSHOP PREP: none.
MATERIALS FEE: $50
Jane has always loved baskets, and was delighted when Sierra College announced a Basket Weaving class for one of their fun Saturday classes in the mid 1990’s. Thus began a journey that involved purchasing basket weaving books, joining the Great Basin Basketmakers Guild in Reno in 1998, travelling to various basketry retreats in Stowe, Vermont; Port Orchard and later Seabeck, Washington; Rockaway Beach, Oregon; The Willow Gathering in Iowa, and others. For the past 25 years she has been travelling, learning, and meeting many wonderful instructors and fellow basket participants. As an outgrowth of taking classes, she began to teach at the various retreats to members of her local guild and found teaching to be really rewarding.
The baskets Jane weaves are practical baskets. Most are made from rattan reed from China that she purchases in one pound coils. Some use round reed and are twined, some use flat reed and are plaited and often involve twills, and some are rib-style baskets, such as an Appalacian Egg Basket. Most involve color. Dying reed is more fun than dying Easter eggs! She uses fiber-reactive dyes so the colors are colorfast and lightfast, as the color is chemically bonded to the reed.