22″ x 13″ x 9″
Woven, split-work construction; hand-split black ash and white oak, saddle leather straps
Woven from New Hampshire black ash with white oak rim and handle, this basket was a fun take on the traditional New England pack basket. It has a bit of flare from the belly to the rim that you typically don’t see in these baskets, but I wanted to give it a more sculpted shape.
New England black ash is the Lexus of split wood basket materials, as opposed to the Mac truck, contrary nature of Southern white oak with which I typically wrangle.
Below is a much larger pack basket I made while working with renowned basket maker John McGuire.
I too am a basket weaver, though I do not harvest my own materials. I have seen similar grass baskets out west and they are woven by American Natives using ancient techniques.
There is something very healing and restful about weaving. Your technique and workmanship are impecable. Thank you for your website. I found you as the new editor of Total Landscape.
Thanks, Laura. Weaving the basket is the most meditative part of the process for me, as well. But as you know, most of the work is in harvesting and preparing the materials. Making splits from white oak by hand often challenges my “zen-niss”
Dear Billy do you sell the back pack basket? How much are they? How can I get in touch? karinapires@bigpond.com thank you
Hi, they sell for $500 and you can reach me at billyrsims@yahoo.com