Tony resides in St. Louis and is a long time basketmaker, basket enthusiast, teacher, illustrator, graphic artist, designer, an avid collector, friend, paper artist, crafter, I could go on. So many people ask us about Tony and why we haven’t thought of doing a post about him a long time ago is beyond us. So Eric decided to do his own Q&A with Tony. Here it is…
Eric: I met you years ago when you took workshops at the basket shop in New Hampshire. Who knew that years later that you would be hosting workshops and I would be one of the teachers. That being said, what are the earliest memories of taking workshops at the basket shop?
Tony: My first few visits to the basket shop were part of the apprenticeship program, so I was to make handles, bundle splint and weave baskets to be sold in the shop. The evenings though were free for me to weave baskets for myself and I took advantage of it. I wouldn’t even break for dinner and usually didn’t stop weaving until 10:30 or so. Well, needless to say, I would always be the last person to leave the splint mill. I would have to turn off all the lights as I left and then walk down a path to where my car was parked. The path was lit, but the shop was really out in the middle of nowhere completely surrounded by dark woods. One of the times as I was locking up and walking to my car, a great-horned owl swooped down from a perch right next to the path. I’m not 100% sure if I screamed out loud or not, but I definitely didn’t stop running until I was in my car and I’m sure my heart rate didn’t return to normal until I got to the Snow Bound B&B.
Eric: That sure brings back memories. There were definitely more creatures out there than people.
Tony: Another memory from the shop is actually one that my friend, who I met in the first class, still likes to remind me of. I came prepared with a list of baskets I wanted to make and, as I mentioned, I was weaving until all hours of the night making basket after basket. On the last day when I was presented with my bill (two pages long!) I am told that all of the color drained from my face. Apparently, the running total in my head was short a few hundred dollars of what I had actually spent.
As far as my first memories of you Eric, it is actually from before we even met. In 1985 my first basket teacher gave me a copy of a Country Home article about Shaker baskets and the basket shop. That was the first time I had seen a black ash Shaker basket and I was enamored. In that article was this photo of this like kid with a pageboy haircut bending basket handles and I was sooooo jealous. When we finally met about 10 years later you were stuck in the office working on the basket shop newsletter.
Eric: You just had to bring up that page boy haircut didn’t you. I know your parents have been a big influence on your passion for all kinds of crafts but what drew you to baskets? And do you remember your first basket?
Tony: Yes, my parents are both very creative and my dad has dealt in antiques since before I was born. Growing up we always had old baskets around the house, but they were just another old thing, like all of the antique furniture we had. In the early 80s my mom opened a fine needle craft supply shop. As the store grew, she would add whatever craft was trending, be it stenciling, folk art painting, etc. Well a woman was teaching basket classes at the evening adult education program and the other craft store in town was not keeping reed, hoops and handles in stock like she needed. She approached my mom about carrying the supplies and mom agreed as long as she would teach classes at mom’s shop. The first basket I made in one of those classes was a reed market basket. I still have that basket—it eventually became my camping basket, but got stepped on one night in the dark. It is a little worse for wear. Anyway, I also took a ribbed class making a melon basket. After those two baskets something just clicked and I took a whole new interest in the baskets we had at home and the ones dad had in his antique shop.
Eric: Your parents sure sound like busy folks. I now know where you get your “busy-ness” from!
You have a diverse collection of baskets from many known makers. What is your criteria for adding a basket to your collection and where have you made some of your finds?
Tony: I definitely come by collecting from my parents. Their entire house is basically one big collection. When I started weaving, they really encouraged me and I think it gave my dad an excuse to start collecting something new. Over the summer, after I had started weaving, we took a week-long trip driving around Tennessee visiting white oak basket makers. One of the towns we visited was your very own McMinnville. On that trip was when I first met Gertie Youngblood and we bought one of her baskets, along with a truck load of other new and antique baskets.
While that collection is technically my parents’, I did feel a few, like Gertie’s, were mine and those seeded my own collection. I have been fortunate to have met many great basket makers personally and have purchased directly from them, but many of my favorite makers are no longer weaving, so I have had to buy their baskets from the secondary market, often time from ebay or even Craig’s List. Not only did I get my collecting bug from my dad, but I also have his nose for the find too.
Eric: Wow, You’ve been to McMinnville, I didn’t know that. If you had to pick the one big “super find” of a basket, which one is it and what’s the story behind finding it?
Tony: The best finds are when the seller doesn’t know what they have on their hands. To most, a basket is just a basket. One of my most recent acquisitions was a JoAnne Russo black ash basket. It was just tossed into a lot of five baskets. Fortunately for me I recognized her signature style of complex twilled baskets of dyed and natural ash. I was the only one that bid and got the whole lot for $20. The other four baskets were actually pretty nice coiled baskets, but nothing like the caliber of the gallery piece of JoAnne’s.
Eric: I know jealousy is bad but, darn!
When I did a workshop at your home this past May, you were showing a collection of miniatures that you had recently obtained. I just remember it was pretty impressive. Can you tell us the story behind that find?
Tony: That was one of those finds where you get the fever and you are going to get it no matter what. Someone posted on a Facebook group that they had a collection of miniatures that they were thinking about selling. They started posting some photos and the range and quality of makers was mind blowing. I immediately contacted them and discovered that they only wanted to sell the entire collection intact. I’m talking dozens and dozens of baskets. They wanted me to make an offer, so I had them send me photos of everything that was part of the collection. The majority of the collection were cute mini and small baskets, but a subset of about 50 were miniatures of exceptional quality by known makers. I did lots of research and assigned values to everything and made an offer. They countered, and the collection was mine.
It has been a year and I am embarrassed to say that I still don’t have the collection properly displayed. Some of the notable makers from that subset are Trevle Wood, Darryl and Karen Arawjo, Joel Davis, JoAnn Kelly Catsos, Jonathan Kline and June Patterson (one of the basket shop’s original apprentices).
Eric: That collection is incredible. The Joel Davis Picnic basket is amazing!
Eric: You have earned the reputation, and rightfully so, as being a social media influencer in the basket community. Did you set out to do that or did you just fall into it?
Tony: Ha, now if I could just monetize that! In all seriousness though, I started my website way way back in 1997—when AOL and dialup modems were new—kind of on a lark. I had all of these baskets that I had made and acquired, and I was the only one that ever got to see them, so I made an online gallery to share my collection. Around this time message boards and groups were really popular and there was this great basket message group, Weaver’s Words, run by an incredible young man, David Collins of Indianapolis. People would post questions and I was always ready with an opinion and an answer. I kind of became the go-to person for how-to information. Once I started hosting basket workshops, I began posting photos from the classes with almost step-by-step process pics. I have teachers tell me that they will send their students to my site to see specific steps on a basket they are working on. While I do use my internet presence (now comprised of a website, blog, Instagram account and Facebook Pages) to promote the classes that I host and the classes I personally teach (though I am teaching my first class in 15 years this summer), it really has always been about sharing information and my love of baskets.
Eric: I totally had forgotten about the early days of dial up and “Weavers Words’”. I hear that Instagram is your favorite (It’s Lynne’s favorite too), is that true and why?
Tony: I think Instagram is my favorite. It is all about pictures and as a visual person it is easier for me to share my story through photos than words (think Twitter). Again, I can share my collection, my musings, my cat pics to a much wider audience than just torturing my friends by making them look at my phone. There are a lot of craftspeople on Instagram who share their work and their works in process, so it is fun to see other artists’ creative processes and finished works. Plus, I find out about a lot of craft/art/antique shows on Instagram.
To be continued…..
Great job Tony and Eric! I loved the questions and answers. But we are not done… there was so much that I will have to post a “Part 2” next Sunday so check back!
My comments about the Q&A: Now I know why Eric has refused to change his long hair since his 20’s and cuts it himself. He was so traumatized over that page boy haircut! But I love that pic! Thanks so much for sending it to me Tony. I think it’s my new favorite photo of Eric.
In addition, I find it so interesting that Tony read about Eric and his Shaker boxes years before he actually met him and then Tony embarked on his own basket collecting here in Tennessee and visiting McMinnville, no less, decades before Eric decided to re-locate his business permanently. I find that so cool.
Love the Eric, Tony Q & A! Thrilled to hear Tony’s Basket History. I found both of you too late! Tony was not in New England and Eric you and Lynne were preparing to leave NE! Since I live in Ma, that meant I may never meet or take lessons from either of you!😢😒
Anyway, A Great idea to do along with the Friday 5 questions.
Thank you all. A perfect Topic choice by the basketmakers Wife!
Why thank you so much Janet. You know, Eric will be teaching a workshop on the Cape first week in September I think and then he’s teaching on Nantucket right after that. OR you could always come to Tennessee for one of his classes here!! 🙂
Great article! Loved it. Fun learning about two of my favorite people.
Actually I learned about Tony through Weavers Words when I was living in Hawaii and just getting in touch with other makers.
I found a basket in our family’s old garage in Vermont and Tony was able to give me background info about it. It was years later that we actually met. I still have that print out from Weavers Words ! Lol
Way cool… Thanks for sharing Joanne!!!