Billy Ray Sims Basketmaker
Traditional white oak and splint basketry
Category: Billy’s Baskets
Bulrush & White Oak
Completed for the Contemporary Greenwood exhibit, Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Rockport, Maine , January 2020
Read MoreEssex Museum Clam Basket
13 1/2” x 20″ x 16 3/4” White oak on galvanized wire The Essex Shipbuilding Museum (MA) has created a project to replicate a vintage clamming skiff and clam harvest basket. The basket part of the project calls for reproducing…
Read MoreAppalachian Egg Basket
11″ x 14″ x 10″ Carved, whittled, woven, rib work construction; hand-split white oak This basket is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum as a gift from Martha G. Ware and Steven R. Cole. It’s based on an Appalachian style known…
Read MorePotato Basket & Mini-Spud
A challenging commission, shown in the foreground, came from a client who wanted a version of the potato basket you can read more about below. But when I informed her how large the original basket is —23″-wide— she asked for…
Read MoreTennessee Feather Basket
12″w x 22″h While visiting the Museum of Appalachia, Norris, TN, and admiring John Rice Irwin’s incomparable collection of handmade Appalachian baskets, I was offered the chance to purchase one from his private collection. My eyes were immediately drawn to…
Read MoreAlabama Corn Basket
14″ H x 18″ W This field basket, modeled after one by Vonnie Miller, was quickly made at an annual gathering of white oak basket makers at Mary Ann and Bill Smith’s home in McCalla, AL. About 10 enthusiasts came…
Read MoreWhite Oak Market Basket
6 1/2″ x 10″ x 7 1/2″ I’ve enjoyed the privilege of working before with Leona Waddell, a wonderful master basketmaker in Cecilia, KY, but this one was something special. It’s a small market basket, similar to larger versions Leona…
Read MoreIt’s All in the De “tails”
10″ x 10″ x 48″ Here’s a white oak fish trap that was a boatload of fun to make. It’s a replica, with exception of carved heads and tails, of a trap made by old-time South Carolina basket weaver Elbert…
Read MoreLessons from the Past
Potato Basket 21″ x 21″ x 9″ Rib-work construction; hand-split white oak There are few basket makers who work with white oak. It’s labor intensive—this basket required hand splitting the good part of two small oak trees—and most of those…
Read MoreWhite Oak Fish Creel
White Oak Creel 8″x12″x6″ Split-work construction; white oak weaving and quarter-sawn oak lid; saddle leather strap The basket shown is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a gift of Martha G. Ware and Steven R. Cole. It’s made on a mold to…
Read MoreSweetgrass Rice Fanner
2 1/4″ x 16″ x 16″ Coiled and sewn construction; sweetgrass, bulrush, palmetto Some 15 years ago, I lived on an old wooden sailboat on the Stono River just south of Charleston, SC. Newly divorced and in need of healing,…
Read MoreBlack Ash Pack Baskets
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…
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