I am not a professional artist. I enjoy working with many different materials to satisfy my need for creativity. I particularly like to work with materials that reflect the world around us.

In my ribbed basket I used reed, coiled sea grass and an antler shed by one of our local deer. A traditional ribbed basket starts with a hoop to which ribs are added. The middle and strongest rib is attached to the hoop by a God’s Eye of woven reed. Additional ribs of smaller round reed are inserted into the God’s Eye. The hardest part of making the basket is keeping the ribs in place until enough weaving has been done to hold them in place. They tend to “pop out” and have to be re-inserted over and over again. The contour of the basket is created by adjusting the length of additional ribs until a rounded bottom has been achieved. Many different materials can be used to weave around the ribs. In this basket the weavers are coiled sea grass. A handle can be added to a finished basket. Driftwood is often used but in this case an antler is used. Antlers make perfect handles, but they can be challenging because antlers weigh so much more than the basket that they must be balanced perfectly so they don’t tip the basket over. Antlers by themselves are beautiful but they can be embellished by wrapping them with leather or yarn and adding shells or stones.