1: Baskets and Basket Makers in Southern Appalachia
This is the most inspiring book I have found about making baskets. John Rice Irwin covers the subject of producing hand made baskets from scratch with a minimum of tools, and materials found in nature. The author features a great variety of black and white pictures of high quality baskets and makers at work. The book is as much a historical perspective of the Southern Appalachian basket culture, as it is a guide for making your own baskets. The remote areas of the region and the abundance of white oak and other native plants dictate the evolution of making baskets. There are references that indicate the initial designs were adopted by the Cherokee people of the region for harvesting, storing, and marketing their crops. The author has taken great care to include many details about the basket makers, their methods, and reasons for weaving. I was most inspired by the personal stories behind each basket, and the fact that many of the baskets outlive their makers. It is not uncommon for a single basket to last through several generations, carrying the love and thoughtfulness of the maker to those that follow. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in hand made baskets, as well as those who are looking for ways to use materials found in the back yard to create a lasting, usefull, even market worthy product. I have adopted many of the methods, meterials, and designes in the baskets I now make.
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