4/26/2007
 Well
- this was an attempt to take a photograph of the
newest basket I am working with. Hemi is just so helpful I
can't even tell you. This one has little crystal beads.
I am just trying to start pushing the baskets toward being a
jewelry item rather than just an interesting little sculpture.
Right now I have so much writing backed up and even more
website work. The other computer really stopped me from
getting my work where it needed to be.
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4/22/06
The long awaited new computer is here and I have the usual
hassles of setting it up. The new 300 gig hard drive did
help so much. Of course I thought I lost my programs - or
perhaps left them at home, so it is really nice to have
everything kind of working now. I have a little more to do
of course. This keyboard is just simply far better than
the HP. That computer was fast and had a good screen, but
between the mouse and the keyboard it was a disaster to work
with.
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4/20/07
It takes probably 5 hours to make a coiled basket, but the
"sweet grass" one was maybe only 2 hours. Of course it is
so small it barely fits on the tip of my little finger.
I don't know the names of some of the techniques, but need
to find them as there area many many ways to make a basket.
The very interesting thing about baskets is that they are the
most indigenous of all crafts made by local people of their own
local materials and for a specific use. Very elemental and
organic at the same time.
I have just ordered some flat "wire" to try as if it were
reed. (Don't have my rolling mill here in the camper), so will
be trying that. Just a note - I have a background in
fibers as a knitter (for 55 years and handweaver and spinner,
but nothing in baskets).
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4/19/07
Sweet Grass Basket
Well, here's the Sweet Grass Basket. I used 26 gauge
copper and stitched it with 20 gauge silver. I should have
taken a larger piece of silver off and the copper could have
been longer too. Of course I never thought to measure what
I had to know what I would need.
Now I am beginning to wonder what a bezel made of a basket
would be like. I'm not sure how it would work to fit the
stone. That may be the next basket.
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4/18/07
Kind of a land mark day at our house. John (our 33
year old son) has left the Galapagos and is single handing
across the Pacific hoping to stop in Pitcairn before spending a
while in Gambiers. That is about 1000 south east of
Tahiti. He is as prepared as anyone can be with 20 years
at sea and a great boat under him.
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4/17/07
Coiled Basket
This is another try at a basketry technique. I have a
method in my madness - new pieces planned using these
techniques. The coil takes quite a lot of time to do and
weighs a lot. This one is copper over a base metal wire
but I would like to see it over "self" wire.
We are in South Carolina and I am very interested in the
Sweet Grass baskets made in this area and will be seeing if I
can translate the technique to wire.
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4/9/07
 Easter
Bonnet
This little Easter Bonnet has been on the drawing board for
a while. It is mainly a sampler of the weaving technique
to see what I can control by bending the ribs of the basket.
This is junk wire, so kind of hard to do much with, but was a
fun project.
Maybe I should weave a little hat band and flower to go
around it. It measures about 2 1/2 inches. I am
doing several different things just as samplers to show the
techniques when we teach the wire weaving classes at
Wildeacres
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4/6/07
In the month since I last wrote in the log, we have been up
to our eyebrows in busy. We loaded and traveled from
Rockport, MA to Aberdeen, MS. We had to send 25 boxes to
Aberdeen, mostly jewelry tools and books we ought in New York.
When we got home, we actually moved into the house - we had
mostly just stacked things there from the boat and camper since
we built the house. Don had to go to the jobsite for 2
weeks, so it allowed me to organize things.
When he came back, we found we were going to Charleston, SC
on a job, and had to pack the camper in 3 days. Ths most
difficult thing was choosing materials and tools to take along.
We ended up not taking the rolling mill and bench shear, but
tried to get most of the other tools in the best we could.
It is difficult to plan what sorts of jewelry you might be
making 4 - 6 months down the road.
Now we hope to get back to making jewelry and working on the
site, so look for new pictures here and a complete revamping of
the Kingfisher Designs site.
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