Nantucket Basket Making Lesson with Martha Lawrence

I found out that Nantucket Basket Maker, Author, and Authority Martha Lawrence is living an hour and half south of me in Florida where I reside in the winter months. She is the author of "Lightship Baskets of Nantucket" http://www.amazon.com/Lightship-Baskets-Nantucket-Schiffer-Collectors/dp/0764308912 one of my all time favorite books on these very special baskets.

I contacted her and she agreed to give me a lesson and we started off with a basic 6 inch Basket. 

Martha is delightful, knowledgable and very charming. I was thrilled to get to work with her and learn some techniques, tips, and tricks.

Putting the rim on the basket was a cinch with Martha's expertise and techniques!

I wove as tightly as I could!

After my 2nd day of weaving!

The very beginnings... Getting those staves lined up and straight!

A collection of Monnie's Baskets. She is an advanced student if Martha's and definitely inspiring! What work!!

Some other molds and projects at Martha's in process!!

These are Martha Lawrence's  set of nesting baskets from her private collection displayed at her studio. 

My finished basket! What a special basket. I loved making it and I promise to keep it always! Thank you Martha!!

Pine Needle Basketry is an Opportunity to Live in the Moment

I

Doing Pine Needle Basketry is a really great opportunity to slow down and stay in the moment with your own breath. It is a meditation in itself. When you have yourself settled down this way, you don't project your mental state into the future and instead take great care and interest in each stitch. The old saying that a stitch in time saves nine is so true.

 I started work on a Pine Needle Basket today and I think you can see from the very beginnings of this basket that there is a certain relaxed contentment in it.

This is the thing about making Pine Needle Baskets, we learn by our mistakes and what works for us and what doesn't. Being adaptable and creative can be so much more than just doing a stitch and liking how it looks. Everything about the art form from picking the needles up off the ground, washing and drying them, baking them in glycerin or dyeing them has an energy of love which we infuse with every step into the process of each basket. Art is a process and cultivating the resiliency to be in constant awe and creative adaptability goes a long way towards the overall look of any given basket. It is best to just chalk up any set backs as " experience" and move lovingly forward to the next step in the process. Next time you process some needles try something new or wait for a warmer day. Sometimes this is why baskets can take a long time, because we wait for the perfect moment to do things. This doesn't always come easy. I always want to push things through with my mojo but as I grow older I start to see a wonderful rhythm and energy to the ups and downs or trials of making a basket.

I have tasted the hidden honey of the lotus that expands on the ocean of light, and thus, I am blessed. Let this be my parting word. - Rabindranath Tagore

Mystic Journey Pine Needle Basket

"Mystic Journey Pine Needle Basket"
The Mystic Journey is the journey of the soul.
As the Poet Wordsworth once wrote:
Our birth is but a sleeping and a forgetting
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere it's setting
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
can in a moment travel thither

The very beginnings of the Mystic Journey.
 Paua Shell cabochon glued to a piece of leather.
 

1st row going on second row.
I make my stitches tight and close.

Putting on the 1st row of 6 mm lapis beads

Lapis bead row almost complete

1st row of solid teal wrapping

A Row of Czech glass teal colored
 beads between rows.

Added a row of larger 10mm Lapis Beads
 and then another solid teal row is begun

Solid Teal row is completed and starting a row of cobalt
 colored czech glass beads between rows.

The cobalt beads I used were silver lined.
Here is a close up of we stringing
them in between rows.

Another close up.
You can really see the beauty of the Lapis Beads.

Teal colored glass Czech beads
used between rows.

The light looks beautiful
through the Teal Beads

This is where I am adding a row of 8mm Lapis beads
and starting to come up the sides of the basket.

The sides of the Basket are being formed
and I added another solid teal row to end the whole thing.

close up of center

The Back of the Basket.

Side View of Finished Basket
Note my bee hives in the background!

Angled View

Alternate View of Finished Basket

Finished View of "Mystic Journey"
This basket is 10"x 10" by 3" high.
It was made between Oct 15 - Nov 13, 2014
in East Gloucester, MA by Melissa Smith Abbott

Joseph Campbell once said, 

" Where we had thought to travel

outward, we shall come to the center of our 

own existence 

 where 

we thought we were alone, 

we shall be with all the world." This 

is

 in fact, the crux of the Mystic Journey 

we all take on this path 

                                 called life.

Melissa Abbott's Making of the Amethyst Pine Needle Basket : "Soul Retrieval"

Soul Retrieval - Finished March 2014 

You are
the melody
that weaves
its way
through
my soul…

My Basket Making Tray

Washed Florida Long Leaf Pine Needles
drying in the sun after being washed.

I started this basket in January 2014 in Merritt Island FL. I had owned this Amethyst Cabashon for several years and it called to me to make it into a basket. I was imagining a larger basket so I started using a larger than usual bundle .

Added Mariposa Beads

Green Row of Waxed Linen Thread

Adding a row of Amethyst beads

Starting Solid Purple Row

Stating to come up the sides to create the bowl effect

Last Row!!!

Side View

Soul Retrieval was finished in February 2014 on Merritt Island, FL. and SOLD in late March 2014 on Etsy at 

Melissa Abbott Designs

Beautiful Large Pine Needle Basket made on Merritt Island, Florida in Jan-Feb 2014 by Melissa Smith Abbott. The Pine Needles were carefully hand sourced on Merritt Island after a Wind Storm, each needle carefully selected. The center cabochon is Amethyst and the weaving is done with Bees Waxed Irish alternating Green and Plum colored Linen Thread, Amethyst Gemstone Beads, Mariposa Glass Beads, and Apple Green Chrysoprase Beads. The Basket is a reintegration and healing meditation, bringing parts of a soul into focus and wholeness. The Basket while spiritual in nature would also be a beautiful addition to any decor as a table top piece but could also be displayed on the wall or table as Fiber Art!