Description
9 am – 5 pm Saturday and Sunday
Skill Level: All skill levels welcome! No prior basket weaving experience is required. Some hand strength and finger dexterity are necessary as we will be working with scissors and a knife to prepare all the materials for the basket.
Class Registration Fee: By May 26, 2025: $250.00
After May 25, 2025: $275.00
Black ash bucket baskets are beautiful, strong utilitarian baskets that can help hold a berry or tomato harvest, office or craft supplies, and so much more. They also look lovely when displayed on a bookshelf. This style is a great introduction, or refresher, into weaving height in a basket.
In this class, students will prepare their base and weaver pieces for their bucket basket by cutting and knife-scraping black ash splint material that has already been hand-pounded off of a black ash log. Students will then weave the basket in the checkerwork weave pattern for the base and use the continuous weave pattern for the walls. Students will learn how to finish this basket by tucking in the uprights and preparing their rim and lashing pieces which will be fitted and secured onto the basket body.
A log pounding and splint splitting demonstration will be done where students can participate in and observe the intricate, labor-intensive process of attaining black ash splint material for basketry. Students will also learn about Oneida and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) traditions and history of black ash basket weaving. A display table of baskets and basket books will be available for students to interact with.
Students need to bring the following supplies:
All materials and tools will be provided by the instructor. Students are welcome to bring a notebook to write down anything.
Materials fee: (To be collected directly from students by instructor in class): $85.00
Liandra Skenandore is an enrolled tribal citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and descends from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Muscogee Creek Nation, and Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. In 2020, she apprenticed as a black ash basket maker under renowned black ash weaver April Stone (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) through the Mentor Artist Fellowship Program from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Since completing her apprenticeship in 2021, Liandra continues to practice black ash basket weaving and now enjoys sharing and teaching the craft with various communities. Her work has been supported by the Encouragement Artist Grant from the Minnesota Historical Society and by the Native Craft Artist Readiness Program from the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums.
