Sanborn Mills Farm - White Oak & Skeined Willow Hen Basket Class (6/25-6/28)

You must enroll for this course through the Sanborn Mills Farm website.
CLICK HERE TO ENROLL

There is nothing quite like a weekend at the bucolic Sanborn Mills Farm. Spend three days inside of a timber framed barn learning the dying art of Appalachian white oak and skeined willow basketry. Take a look at the video in the image slider to get a feel for the view.

Explore two different methods of basketry materials processing in this multi-disciplinary basket-making course suitable for all levels of weavers. We will deep dive into Appalachian white oak basketry, discussing both the history and the methods employed by traditional Appalachian basketmakers while we demo how to break down a white oak log together, using both this material and pre-split material to construct the frames for our baskets*.

We will then move on to splitting and shaving down round willow rods to make flat, skeined willow weavers, which we will use to weave together our white oak frame. Finally, we will combine both disciplines as we weave a 10″ white oak and skeined willow hen-style (referred to as the Ginkgo basket on my website) frame basket together.

*this course requires a great deal of hand strength and stamina, and is as much knife work as it is basket weaving. Students should feel comfortable with using a carving knife. Please contact the instructor if you have any concerns.