The Complete Book Of Basketry

Profusely illustrated authoritative classic gives history and geography of baskets, detailed advice on basket design, materials, techniques, care, and step-by-step instructions. 294 illustrations, including 12 in color on the covers.

There is nothing like the satisfaction of owning a beautiful handmade basket. They brighten any room, are useful around any home, and make cherished heirloom gifts. This magnificent collection of over 30 baskets draws on the long, rich tradition of basketmaking and uses a variety of fascinating techniques and easy-to-find materials. In a matter of hours, you can proudly produce a handsome basket that will be admired for generations to come. You'll appreciate the step-by-step instructions, including over 400 illustrations, colorful full-page photos and helpful hints and suggestions. Gorgeous watercolors of baskets are interspersed throughout, making this book as beautiful as it is useful. Book jacket.

Step-by-step instructions for more than 40 projects.

A practical book on the techniques, methods and design of basketry for basketmakers of all abilities. The authors provide an inventory of materials and specialist tools; many design possibilities; practical advice on starting a basket; and a variety of different weaves.

Step-by-step instructions complete with detailed color photographs. Includes a chapter on dyeing reed at home. 4 basic basket projects for the beginning weaver.

Through a series of easy to follow step by step projects, this book will teach you the fundamental skills and techniques as used in many every-day baskets. Clear instructions and more than 280 photos and diagrams will guide you through every aspect. Projects include 'your first basket', a simple bowl; a log basket; a garden trug; a potato basket; and a foraging basket.This book is designed for the beginner. Everything you need to know is covered, including guidance on sourcing the willow either from a specialist grower, or the countryside."Basketry is a rewarding craft. Being able to take some humble sticks and weave them together into a beautiful and functional item is extremely satisfying. Even after weaving hundreds of baskets, I still get a 'buzz' when finishing a new creation. The satisfaction doesn't stop there either, using your hand-made baskets for jobs such as picking berries or gathering produce from your garden, is a joyful thing." Jonathan RidgeonNote: The full range of projects are those pictured on the cover.

Basketry explores in depth the techniques and materials used to construct baskets around the world, demystifying basketry and giving a basis for understanding, appreciating and identifying the baskets of the world. Copious colour photographs, diagrams and archive photography of international basketry provide a rich source of comparison and reference.

The origins of basketry are lost in the mists of prehistory, but making baskets is certainly one of the oldest and most nearly universal crafts of mankind. In the Americas, basket artifacts found in caves in Utah have been dated at 7000 B.C., while twined baskets said to be at least 5,000 years old have been uncovered in Peru. In the American Southwest, an entire Indian culture (ca. 100–700 A.D.) is known as "Basket Maker" because of the distinctive baskets it produced. This exhaustive survey (two volumes in one) of American Indian basketry, perhaps the finest book ever published on the subject, documents basketmaking throughout the Americas — in Eastern North America, Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, Western Canada, Oregon, California and the Interior Basin, as well as Mexico, Central and South America. Spanning a wide range of indigenous cultures (Aleutian, Tlinkit, Shoshonean, Athapascam, etc.), the detailed, carefully researched discussions in this book offer a wealth of information about woven and coiled basketry, watertight basketry, materials, basketmaking techniques and preparation, ornamentation and symbolism, as well as the uses of baskets as receptacles, in preparing and serving food, for gleaning and milling, in mortuary customs, in religion and social life, in trapping, carrying water, and in many other areas of Indian life. An interesting and informative chapter on collectors and collections and the preservation of baskets, followed by a helpful biography, rounds out the book. In addition, the author, once Curator of Ethnology at the U.S. National Museum (part of the Smithsonian Institution), enhanced this encyclopedic study with over 450 excellent photographs and illustrations. For collectors, preservationists, anthropologists, students of crafts and culture, modern basketmakers, this is an indispensable reference — a massively rich source of information about baskets, the peoples who made them, how they were made, and their role in native American life and culture.