Photos of the Making of a 8" Cherry Nantucket Purse 2013 with Carved Bone Whale by Melissa Abbott

Finished Cherry Wood Basket with Bone Findings and Whale Carving
by Melissa Abbott 2013 - Gloucester, MA

Putting the Staves on the Basket

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I use elastic bands and a Spray bottle of warm water to mold Rattan Staves to
Nantucket Basket Mold

Starting the Weaving

Staves on the Mold next to a finished
Maple Nantucket Basket

Close Up of Weaving

Getting the Weaving as tight as possible

Taking Shape

Molding the Cherry Wood Rims 

View of Back Hinges

Side View

I lined the basket with some oriental quilting fabric using velcro so it is removable

I finished this in September 2013 after working on it during the Summer.
I gave it to my stepdaughter Emily for a Christmas Present this year.

This is a photo of Emily Opening the Nantucket Basket surrounded by her children at
Christmas 2013.

Peeking inside!!
This purse, made from Cherry and Rattan will last for years to come and can serve as a wonderful summer basket purse!

Happy Basket Making, 

Melissa Abbott

Gloucester, MA

If you love Basket Making, you have to Watch this VIDEO: "A Measure of the Earth: The Cole-Ware Collection of American Baskets" at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Film by Billy Ray Sims. 
Produced in conjunction with the exhibition "A Measure of the Earth: The Cole-Ware Collection of American Baskets" at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

"A Measure of the Earth" celebrates the generous gift of seventy-nine baskets to the Smithsonian American Art Museum by the noted collectors Steven R. Cole and Martha G. Ware, and the promised gift of twenty more. 

The 105 baskets on display were made between 1983 and 2011 and demonstrate the endurance of indigenous, African, and European basket weaving traditions in the United States. The Cole-Ware collection presents an encyclopedic view of this medium, and is notable for the care with which samples were collected. The sixty-three weavers represented craft their baskets almost entirely from un-dyed native materials—grasses, trees, vines, and bark—that they have gathered. The forms—from baskets for eggs, harvest, and market to those for sewing, laundry, and fishing creels—reveal the central role basketry has played in the everyday life of Americans.
website for Exhibition:
http://www.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2013/baskets/

In Process: The Making of a Nantucket Berry Basket

As I make the Basket I will add photos to the Blog to document the Process

Nantucket Berry basket off the Mold

The Very Start, Stave on the Mold

First Couple of Rows always the Hardest!

Just took the basket off the Mold! Mold on Right.

Basket on Left is Berry Basket with Rim and Lashing put on after taking off Mold
Finished Berry Basket with Handle in Back

The Weave came out Pretty Good!!

Process: Working on Cherry Nantucket Basket Purse - September 2013

Getting the Staves on the Mold

Staves Finished and Resting

Start of New Basket with one already done