Sculptural basketry techniques program

 

Our March meeting was led by guild member Jennifer Jay.  Jennifer was awarded a scholarship to attend CNCH 2023 and her choice of class was one led by Polly Giacchina - The enhanced twined form".  After Jennifer had practiced the various techniques she had learned in the class, she challenged herself to share them with guild members.

 Jennifer brought two techniques to the hands-on-class.  Coiled basketry and knotless netting.  She made little kits for everyone in the class with materials suitable for learning the basics of both of these sculptural forms.  In the photo above, you see a vase covered with knotless netting and a little dangling basket using the coiled basketry technique.  Also, in the center of the vase is tree branch, covered with wrapped yarns that mimics the coiled basketry technique.

Most, if not all of our group was pretty new to these basketry ideas.  Jennifer explained how to look for materials that were unusual and combine them in different ways.  The pieces she had on display showed just how broadly the different techniques could be expressed.

We all got down to the nitty gritty of starting our little coiled piece.  Here are a few of our first attempts.

 

I know that I speak for all of the members who attended this meeting, that we appreciate Jennifer sharing her knowledge with us.  It was a grand way to spend the evening and we all walked away with new tricks in our fiber bag.

Making Paper Christmas Stars

 At the November meeting, we challenged our inner child and made European Paper Stars using waxed kite paper.  The stars are popular decorations in Germany and many households display them during the whole Christmas season.  

We had three guild mentors who had learned the procedures before the meeting so that they could guide members through the process.

The beauty of these stars is revealed once they are hung on a window and the sun shines through them, showing all the various layers of color in the folded paper.  The intricacies are really amazing.

 

 Here is an array of stars that the mentors made before the program.  We started with the most basic star and worked our way up to more difficult ones.

 

 Each star is made up of multiple sub-units.  Some stars used 8 squares of paper, some 10 and more.

 

  A little dab of glue holds the pieces together.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a great activity to do on an afternoon with children or grandchildren.  We learned the technique from Marilyn Romatka on Taproot Video. 

https://taprootvideo.com/preview_class.jsf?iid=1&cid=4