Appreciating Black Ash Basketry

The following is a Guest Post by Kathleen Fosha

By now you should have heard the emerald ash borer is decimating the ash trees that supplies materials for black ash basket makers. Can anyone predict when the existing supply of black ash trees will cease to be available? This generation? Next generation? Not really. But it is such an immense joy to weave with this fine material that I selected Eric Taylor’s Traditional to Contemporary Basket class at John C. Campbell Folk School. Having won the complimentary tuition raffle at the 2014 GBA Basket Convention, I emailed Eric my choices for three baskets ahead of time and patiently waited for August 24rd to arrive.

If you’ve woven a black ash basket, and especially Eric’s, you know that the more time you put into preparation (beveling staves, sanding staves, weavers, bases, rims, and handles) the better your basket will become. Sunday evening started with preparation of materials. Monday morning started with preparation of material.

Monday afternoon, I started weaving the Cottage Mail Carrier. Ahhhh. Zen-like peace filled my soul.

Throughout our week, Eric interrupted our preparation and weaving time to demonstrate how he processes his raw material. He set up his ash splitting station (taking one year ash growth splints and splitting them to satin/rough splints.) We each took a turn and learned it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

On another day, Eric  demonstrated how he pulls satin/sanded splint into weavers.If we hadn’t already begun to appreciate the labor that went behind putting together our kits, we all started to be in awe. Eric offered us the opportunity to prepare all our weavers for our baskets this week. We kindly declined, letting Eric supply the hand-pulled, sanded weavers.

There were six weavers in our group; three seasoned weavers (all GBA members!) and three new to mold/ash weavers. The dynamics of the group were  wonderful. We laughed, shared stories, laughed, shared tips, laughed, caught up with each others’ lives, laughed, prepared material and wove for five days.

Admittedly, while the Folk School does offer evening entertainment and demonstrations, nothing compares to preparing basket materials after dinner. Seriously. Eric was kind (he’s only scheduled to work 9 am—4:30 pm) to let a couple of us in the weaving studio after dinner to continue to bevel and sand and seal our work so that we would be that much closer to weaving the next day.

One of the new weavers (Christine, from Hawaii) thought we were a bit loony to do that, until she discovered that if she too prepared material, she could create two, three and even four baskets in the short five days together! (She’s found her gift.) To a basket weaver, 12 hours doing something that fuels your soul is pure joy.

After steaming rim stock for four—five hours, Eric demonstrated how he takes the cherry rim stock, secures it to an “outer” rim mold and “inner” rim mold to create the rim material. Life is great when the rim stock literally molds itself to the mold.

Sometimes, unfortunately, Eric gets bad rim stock and when he tries to form the cherry rim to the mold, it cracks. That happened in the demo, a few times, when creating Pencil basket rims. Our appreciation for all the elements in our basket kit continued to rise.

At the end of the five days, I managed to create four heirloom baskets which I will cherish, not only for the finished product, but also because of the treasured time spent at the Folk School; the memories created and stories shared will stay with me long after the ever-so-slight pain in the weaving fingers decline.

I’m delighted to say two of the new weavers have joined GBA, welcome Kim and Christine! Can’t wait to weave with you at one of our GBA conventions.

I’ve decided this retreat to the John C. Campbell Folk School needs to be an annual event.

Who wants to join me next year?

* Article and all photos created by Kathleen Fosha.

Thanks Kathleen! I could never convey the John C. Campbell Folk School experience because I was never a student – only Eric’s helper when I went. You described it perfectly! I think for a weaver to get involved in all the “behind-the-scenes” basket making, and seeing all the work it takes to produce materials, must be a great experience and invaluable.

After the success Eric had there with introducing the “material making” portion, he decided to have one of his workshops here, in Tennessee, be just that. But he decided to push it a little further by having the students design the whole basket they want to make! From start to finish. Begin with a sketch, then build the mold, and figure out the materials to incorporate, including what kind of handle. I’m thinking of taking it myself! LOL.

If anyone is interested, see the link here for his unique “Basket Design Week“.

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