FRIDAY FEATURE — Today’s feature is a wonderful “little” blog that highlights wicker furniture and basketry of all types and a whole lot more!

Casey’s Minis blog is about the daily adventures of Tessie and her husband Zar in the enchanting, wonderful world of miniatures.

Read the journal as they weave baskets and wicker ... READ MORE

  The 6th Annual “Open Water” juried exhibit going on at The First Stage Gallery at the Lyric Center for the Arts in Virginia, MN will be ending soon on May 26th.

Have you stopped in to see this exciting presentation of artwork celebrating the onset of our summer recreation season by these 17 selected regional ... READ MORE

 

WEDNESDAY WICKER WISDOM — Weaving willow coffins

I bet that title above for this blog post really took you by surprise, didn’t it? Well, yes willow coffins are being woven over “across the pond” in England and have been for many years.

Here’s a wonderful video by my friends at The Somerset Willow Company, LTD for you to enjoy!

If you are a long-time subscriber to this blog, you will remember when Olivia ... READ MORE

  TUESDAY WEAVING TIPS–How-to Install Cane Webbing Instructions

Today’s tip is an update on a How-to page I posted many months ago here on WickerWoman.com under the Articles index page, FREE “How-to Install Cane Webbing” Instructions.

Although I had this article accepted and posted for several years on eHow.com, when they changed their writer’s policies a couple years ago, I pulled it off the site.

I won’t go into details, but suffice ... READ MORE

  MONDAY MENTION–Today’s mention is a new chair caning business listing in the National Furniture Repair Directory™ in the Seatweaving section, Florida.

Owner Sandy Roser’s chair caning repair business called, Den of Antiquity, is located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Here she repairs and restores all types of chair caning and wicker work, both antiques and modern.

Besides doing all ... READ MORE

 

Chair Caning Tip of the Day — Making Fish Heads

 

Remember a while ago (Yikes, it was last year in 2011), when I made a blog post about Finding the Right Hole when you are weaving the diagonal cane strands?

Well, I discovered a video that I had made back then about that very topic called, Chair Caning Tip of the Day–Making Fish Heads ... READ MORE

 

Do you know there’s a right and wrong way of weaving with strand chair cane? Whaaaat? There’s a wrong way to weave a strand of cane when chair caning? “No wonder I’m so frustrated,” you say?

Yes, believe it or not, there is a correct way and direction to pull/weave the strands of cane on a hole-to-hole cane chair seat to make sure you don’t damage and fray the strands. ... READ MORE

 

How Does Your Cane Bottom Look? Or Bottoms Up!

Today’s Wednesday Wicker Wisdom deals with the way the bottom or underneath side of a hole-to-hole cane chair looks, NOT your own bottom, thankfully!

How neatly do you tie off the ends of your cane strands? Hopefully yours doesn’t look like the one below in the picture.

This is about the worst job of tying cane knots on the bottom of a ... READ MORE

  As some of you might remember, my old PC computer from 2001 (yikes, it was 11 years old), was on its last leg and about to crash at the end of last year.

So I bought a new computer, taking advantage of year end sales, but before I completely shut down the old ‘puter I put all the important stuff like pictures, videos and documents on flash drives and the terrabite ... READ MORE

 

The Fist Stage Gallery in Virginia, MN Presents: “Open Water” May 3 – May 26, 2012 6th Annual Exhibition

A juried exhibit with jurors Mary Erickson and Richard Saukko, celebrating the onset of our summer recreation season featuring works from 17 selected artists in the northeastern Minnesota region.

Opening night reception for the 6th Annual Open Water exhibit at the Lyric Center for the Arts in Virginia, Minnesota was held on ... READ MORE

  Well, here it’s been about two weeks since I last posted and yet seems like only yesterday I was posting about all the unexpected snow we got so late in the year. My, my how time does fly when you are having fun!

Took a business trip to Oklahoma last week and met with basketmaker and owner of READ MORE

 

We all had a great time at the 4th Annual Iron Range Earth Fest last weekend, dispute the six inches of snow that fell in and around Mt. Iron and the surrounding area!

Luckily, I followed a snow plow home for a good portion of the 30 miles I had to travel to get home, but was on my own when he turned off onto another side road.

This is what our place looked like on 4-21-2012 after Earth Fest

Thank goodness I had just gotten two new front tires the day before, otherwise I couldn’t have made it through the snow with my almost bald tires.

Earth Fest 2012 craft-demo area in Messiah Lutheran Church, Mt. Iron, MN

When I finally did get home and had time to take a look at the pictures I took, I realized that I hardly took any this year. Here’s what I have for Earth Fest 2012.

Range Fiber Arts member’s booth:

Range Fiber Arts Rug Display Earth Fest 4-2012

Range Fiber Arts member Kathy Jacklen spinning wool Earth Fest 4-2012

Range Fiber Arts member Carol Sperling-Rag Rug Exhibit MDC

And here’s my friend and fellow craftswoman, Betsey Harries of Sweetgrass Trading Company with her art dolls:

Betsey Harries, Sweetgrass Trading Company, Earth Fest 4-2012

Betsey has been accepted to the Lorring Park Art Festival in Minneapolis, MN on August 4 & 5, 2012

Betsey Harries, art dolls, Earth Fest 4-2012

And me demonstrating how to weave a hand-twisted natural cattail leaf rush seat:

Cathryn Peters cattail rush seat weaving demo Earth Fest 2012

Hope the weather is better next year for the 5th Annual Iron Range Earth Fest, but even so, we had a great time showing and learning about Sustainable Living on the Iron Range.

 

Don’t miss the 4th Annual Iron Range Earth Fest in Mt. Iron, Minnesota this coming Saturday, April 20, 2012 from 9:00 a.m. – 4 p.m.

What is the Iron Range Earth Fest? Earth Fest is a celebration of local traditions and practical resources for sustainable living on the Iron Range of Northeastern Minnesota.

Get all the details here from the 4th Annual Iron Range Earth Fest site.

The Wicker Woman booth 2011 Earth Fest

I will again have a booth, but this year will be demonstrating sustainablilty cattail leaf chair seat weaving and…

Peters demonstrating cattail leaf rush seat weaving

Birch bark basket weaving in the Messiah Lutheran Church Booth #37/, not too far from my fellow members of the Range Fiber Artists demonstrators.

Birch bark necklace baskets--my class samples

Hope to see all of you at this great show on Saturday–Please stop by and say “Hello” and mention that you saw this post, too!

Happy Weaving! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much~~

 

WEDNESDAY WICKER WISDOM

This Friday, April 20th I will be teaching another basket class held at the Northwoods Friends of the Arts Gallery in Cook, MN.

We will be weaving the Black Ash Elbow Necklace Basket and it will be the last basket class of the Spring series.

See the Cathryn’s Classes page for a complete listing of all the weaving classes scheduled for 2012.

Black Ash Elbow Necklace Basket

Weaving Level: Advanced Beginner, prior basket weaving experience very helpful
Class Fee: $47 kit and instruction, payable in advance

Bring a dish to pass for pot-luck lunch!

Northwoods Friends of the Arts Gallery
http://nwfamn.org/events/NWFA-events
210 River Street, Cook, MN 55723 (next to Dreamweaver Hair Salon)
Registration and payment must be made with Cathryn prior to class at info@wickerwoman.com Phone: 218-666-6189

Happy Weaving! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much~~

 
Yesterday I was a bit surprised to wake up (at 4:30 a.m.) to Mr. WickerWoman saying that we had over five inches of new snowfall and that it was still coming down! Grabbed my camera and started taking pictures of course.

What we didn’t realize at the time, since we were still a bit blurry-eyed and had sleepy seeds in our eyes, is that there really was about ten inches already on the ground and more was yet to come.

Here’s my poor little car, that gets stuck in the driveway when there’s only about five inches of snow on the ground, so I’m not leaving today or until we get it plowed.

Mr. WickerWoman’s 4×4 truck tracks in the snow…

Here’s another picture of the white stuff…

And here’s how it looked this morning when the temperature was only at 16 degrees, although it did get up to 41 degrees yesterday.

And the weatherman says that we should have more temps up in the 40s and 50s today, so maybe this will all melt quickly!

Happy Weaving! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much~~

 
WEDNESDAY WICKER WISDOM–Wonderful Wicker by Bonnie Gale

Wow! Try reading and saying that title quickly three times in a row, bet ‘cha can’t do it!

Bonnie Gale is a willow basketmaker, instructor and grower living here in New York, but is originally from England. She teaches her craft all over the country at basketry workshops, conventions and makes special appearances, too.

Enjoy the video below about her willow sculpture gardens!

Wasn’t that wonderful to get a “tour” of her living willow garden structures and to see how they are created?

Do you also have living willow tents, arbors and/or gates in your yard? Thinking of making some yourself or have you already do so? Please leave a comment below and tell us all about your willow experiences.

Happy Weaving! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much~~

 
TUESDAY BASKET WEAVING TIPS–

In an effort to make more posts about basketmaking here on my blog, I went looking around on YouTube to see what I could find that was interesting and new to me about basketweaving.

Several of the basket guilds also have blogs and websites featuring their members that work with birch bark, too, but I wanted to find a video for this post instead.

Cathryn's birch bark basket vase

I love working with birch bark and have a lot of it growing here on our property, but prefer to harvest from trees that have already been cut down rather than living trees. I take the easy way out and just harvest from our firewood piles!

My class basket sample for woven birch bark heart basket

Most of my birch bark ends up being winter bark, but I’ve also taken birch bark from felled trees in the early summer in June when it almost pops off itself. Easy, peasy, but the misquotes are really bad at that time, and so are the ticks.

"All From One Birch" copyright 2006 Cathryn Peters

I incorporate birch bark strips into many of my antler baskets, and also teach birch bark necklace baskets classes.

I have also taken classes from Russian Basketmaker Vladimir Yarish at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota, which was really fun.

Birch bark necklace baskets--my class samples

I ran across this excellent video tutorial on “How to Make a Birch Bark Basket,” using birch bark, spruce root and willow. Hope you find it as interesting and helpful as I did. Enjoy!

What has been your experience with birch bark? Have you taken any classes? Do you harvest your own, or need to find a source for birch bark?

Please leave your comments below and link to your site if you have some pictures posted there, we want to see them, too.

Happy Weaving! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much~~

 

Now I deliberately waited a week to make this post, because I didn’t want anyone to think it was an April Fool’s Joke, since what happened occurred on Sunday, April 1, 2012.

Unusual wavy cloud formations

Around 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 1st Mr. WickerWoman came home from running errands in Cook and said for me to come outside immediately and take a look at the clouds.

Undulating dark cloud formation

I thought maybe we were under a severe weather alert since it had been really windy and raining earlier in the morning, so went out to take a look and grabbed my camera on the way out the door.

Undulating cloud formation shot to the East on our Angora, MN property

I was blown away (excuse the pun) by these very, very unusual undulating dark blue, black, gray and white cloud formations! Never in my 60 years have I seen anything so spectacular, have you?

Unusual cloud formations in Angora, MN Sunday, April 1, 2012 3:05 p.m.

Have you ever seen anything like this before? Please leave details in the Comment section below. And if you are into weather events, especially cloud formations, and know what these are called, would you please leave a comment below? Calling all weathermen–Inquiring minds want to know!

Happy Weaving! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much~~

 
I am amazed at the beautiful sunrises we have up here in northern Minnesota,
especially in the winter and early spring.

Sunrise 8:00am March 2012

So when I saw this series of the rising sun in March,
I couldn’t help but think it was appropriate for Easter.

Sunrise 8:04 am March 2012

He is Risen!

Sunrise 8:06am March 2012

 
 

Happy Weaving! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much~~

SATURDAY SUPPLIERS–Is Your Cane & Basket Supply Company Listed Here?

I just want to take a moment here to thank the wonderful Chair Caning & Basket Making Supply companies that are my advertising sponsors here on WickerWoman.com and on the Weavin’ Wicker Woman Blog!

Chair Caning Supplies--Strand Cane, Cane Webbing, Wide Binding Cane

Since WickerWoman.com does NOT sell chair caning and basketweaving materials to the public, having these companies that specialize in selling supplies, greatly improves the quality of information and resources that I can provide to my viewers.

Smoked round reed coils

Many of the suppliers have monthly newsletters that they send out, which have helpful hints and tips on weaving. And they also let the customers know of any new products, sale items, discontinued items, classes, events coming up and notices of any new basket weaving guilds that you might like to join.

Cathryn's Onion Basket Weaving Class

You will frequently see these suppliers posting to my Seatweaving and Chair Caning Forum also, adding their helpful hints and tips and joining in on the conversations.

And if you are a regular attendee of the basketry conventions, you will run across most of the suppliers listed on the National Cane & Basket Supplies Directory™ sooner or later.

Headwaters Basketry Workshop 2008

Then you’ll be able to speak directly to the cane and basket suppliers and select your special tool, pattern or material in person from their booth. Be sure to tell them you saw their ad on WickerWoman.com and let them know how much you appreciate them!

Are you a cane & basket supply company and don’t have your business listed here on the Directory? Then visit this page and sign up now, become a favorite advertising sponsor!

Happy Weaving! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much~~