The Evolution of a Turquoise Pine Needle Basket "Endless Worlds"

"Endless Worlds" 
The Evolution of a Turquoise Pine Needle Basket "Endless Worlds" in a photo journal by Melissa Abbott - I started this basket in March 2013 in Merritt Island, FL and finished it on August 15, 2013 in Gloucester, MA. The Materials are Turquoise, Beeswaxed Linen Thread, and Long Leaf Yellow Pine Needles gathered by me after a windstorm in Merritt Island FL. The needles were washed and treated with a Glycerin bath to 
preserve and darken them, giving them a glossy look.

The Start of Endless Worlds in 

Merritt Island, FL March 2013

Adding a second row of 

Turquoise Beads

Turquoise Beads

The Bottom

Starting to go up the Sides

Creating the Sides
of the Basket

Resumed working on Basket 

in Gloucester, MA August 2013

Here I am adding third row 

of Solid for the top binding

after a third row of Turquoise Beads

"Endless Worlds"

finished Gloucester, MA

August 15, 2013

by Melissa Abbott

The Story of Learning Nantucket Basket Making on the Island of Nantucket and eventually making a Nantucket Purse

Finished Nantucket Purse

Beginning of Nantucket Basket Purse 
 Putting the Staves on the Mold

I learned how to make Nantucket Baskets on the Island of Nantucket off the Massachusetts Coast one fall day in 2004. My husband's construction company had business remodeling a private home and the Nantucket Whaling Museum in both 2004 and 2005. His company rented a home there for the workers and on the weekends they went home so we traveled to Nantucket either by small plane or ferry. We went to Nantucket quite a few times both on week days and week ends over a two year period. 

I loved spending time on Nantucket Island. I loved the cobblestone streets, the architecture, the onion globe lights, and the history and traditions of the island. I loved the Fall and the Christmas season there and we even attended their Christmas Walk one year and saw a charming play in the local church.

After spending some times on Nantucket and imbibing the culture and flavors of the island.  I became intrigued with the Nantucket Baskets in the local shops. I had actually seen them often over the years and I had always been mesmerized by them. They were actually a popular preppy style item during the 1960's and women of a certain gold charm bracelet, Lilly Pulitzer dress style always seemed to have one on their arm. During this trip, I saw baskets in the shops and read that originally they had been made commercially on the Nantucket Lightships which were anchored off shore and used as Lighthouses on the Nantucket Shoals since the 1880's. The older baskets had perhaps originated from some designs or even been been copied from Native American baskets from the whaling days and even before that time on the Island. In the 1940's a talented basket maker named Jose Reis popularized the covered purse style. His original purses which sold for around $15 a the time are very collectible and valuable nowadays.

I picked up a copy of the Nantucket Mirror and Inquirer, the local newspaper that had been in business since 1821. I read the newspaper and it hung around on the table for a couple of days. I couldn't help but notice a 2 col and 2 inch ad on the back page. I looked at it over and over again. It was an advertisement for Nantucket Basket Making lessons from a man named Peter Finch. I rang him and made an appointment to have a lesson to make a basket. Since I didn't have a car I walked a ways to his grey shingle house with a clamshell driveway outside of town on Pollywog Lane. That is where I got my first mold, a 6 inch berry basket. I visited his home a few times for several lessons and even visited him once I had learned making them to show him my baskets. He told me I would never want to give away my first basket and I still have it, a 6" berry basket with a handle.

.

Last August 2012, I was visiting a friend on the "Cape". In Massachusetts lingo that means Cape Cod. I stayed a couple of days and caught up with her. Her mother had been a Pine Needle Basket Maker and I consigned a couple of my Pine Needle Baskets 

to the Black Whale Gallery in Hyannis ( blog post link http://gloucesterwomanbaskets.blogspot.com/2012/08/trip-to-black-whale-gallery-hyannis-ma.html ) and when it was time to leave I put the coordinates into my GPS for a place called  D.E.L.S. in Middleborough, MA, famous for making Nantucket Basket molds. I was keen to acquire a purse mold and after an amazingly complicated ride through the back roads of southern Massachusetts, I found the place, spent about three hours there and left with an 8" Nantucket Basket Mold and a few other supplies. I was psyched and on my way to making a Purse.

I tried to weave as tightly as possible over the wooden Mold I bought at D.E.L.S. It sure was hard getting it off the Mold. There must be a trick to it but I just pulled and pulled and it came off, what a relief.

D.E.L.S. - Makes Nantucket Purse Moldshttp://www.delsnantuckets.com

Shaping the Rims

After I got the body off the mold I had to shape the rims. I had bought pre shaped rims from D.E.L.S. but they still needed to be soaked in a bit of warm water and then shaped to the exact size of the basket. I glued them and let them sit for a day or so to dry. Then I glued and nailed them to the rims. I looked everywhere around the house for clamps to use. As you can see from the photos, I had quite a collection.

In the above photo, I am gluing on the rims and beginning the purse top or cover. You have to remember that these baskets were state of the art in the times before plastic bags. Apparently, the tradition on Nantucket Island was that everyone had their own basket and often it would have their name carved in whale bone with scrimshaw which is a technique where designs and writing are scratched into the bone and blackened with India ink. The names on the baskets were so as to identify the baskets  at church suppers. Whale bone was something they had a lot of and they used it for findings on the baskets. The early settlers of Nantucket Island learned about Whaling from the Wampanoag Indians there. They would fish for whales just offshore as the whales passed by Nantucket Island fairly closely at that time. It is also thought that the tradition of the baskets also came from the Indians on the Island who originally weaved them from pine needles. Later, when the whalers went to the far east they brought back cane and rattan to use and it replaced the pine needles. There is still a tradition of making pine needle purses similar to the Nantucket Baskets in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts (see my blog on them:http://gloucesterwomanbaskets.blogspot.com/2012/06/i-have-always-loved-pine-trees.html  . 

Eventually with the incorporation of more modern materials in the baskets, such as rattan, cane, and various woods, a very sturdy and practical basket was designed. The original molds for some Nantucket baskets were often woven over old boom and mast pieces from whaling vessels. The older molds are highly prized by the local Nantucket basket makers to this day.

Pictured: The Purse Top Mold with Basket Body Finished just before I lashed the rim with some small cane. 

I really liked the lashing part, like sewing. Something very satisfying about doing it because it made it really sturdy and strong and gave the basket a certain integrity.

I did not have instructions on how to make the top part of the Purse. There is a little cut off mold for it and I was told it was hard to do. I am pretty much a novice Nantucket basket maker but was very interested in trying to do it. With a wing and a prayer I started it and it wasn't too bad.  It was fairly straight forward until I got to the rim part and there was a little bit of pushing and pulling the cane to get it to lay right as I molded the top rims onto the edge or lip of the basket and got it to match up exactly with the bottom.

Weaving the Purse Top. You can see my purse bottom finished in the rear and the lashing done on it.

This is the Finished Basket. I used Bone Findings and a Bone Shell for a decoration on the top. I want to learn Scrimshaw so I can make my own nameplate for the interior and thats one of my next projects. I connected the top and bottom of the basket with leather lashed with cane and sewn into the basket as hinges. I just tried to copy some photos I had seen. I thought it came out pretty well for a novice.

I have used this basket for over 6 months now as my purse. Everywhere I go, people comment on it and tell me I could sell them and that it is beautiful. To tell you the truth, I just couldn't sell this basket as it is my own personal basket. So far it is the only Nantucket Purse that I have made. I have aspirations to make another one soon using cherry wood and a Bone Whale Carving I have procured.

I lined the interior with some 

fabric that is velcroed 

to the basket so it can 

be changed or removed

for cleaning. I used a pretty purple paisley with a nice sheen to it and it is very pretty. I thought about lining it with leather and I can always do that if the other wears out.

I remember as a little girl always wanting to make baskets. I have always been entranced by them for some reason. The whole project of making one is interesting because you get to pick and choose natural materials from nature and the world around you. This practice is actually very meditative and has a spirituality to it that is somehow translated into the baskets themselves. I always had a dream to make a Nantucket Basket and this is a small chronicle of my process. People ask me, how long did it take you to make it? My answer is that it took me a lifetime to make it and only eight years from when I first took Nantucket Basket lessons from Peter Finch on the Island of Nantucket in 2004. It took me 8 years to find D.E.L.S. and buy the mold. However long it took, it was worth it. I feel like it has all my energy and happiness in the basket and there is something so satisfying making something with your own hands. Truly an experience of an Art Form in the highest and best possible way!

Happy Basket Making,

Melissa Abbott

Nantucket Berry Basket

I started this basket in 2003-04 while visiting Nantucket Island and taking a Nantucket Basket Making seminar with Islander basket maker Peter Finch. I was there with Charlie my now husband, whose company was renovating the Nantucket Whaling Museum and we had the chance to spend quite a bit of time on the island. I love it there and I always loved the Bantucket Lightship Baskets so it was a natural for me to call up Peter Finch. I didn't have a car so I walked ot his studio/shop/home on Polliwog Pond Road to initially meet him before I took a subsequent seminar another visit. He is a delightful man and a joy to be around. I was thrilled when he agreed to give me a private lesson on my next visit. I heard he still makes baskets but has turned his present day attention to jewelry and he makes a Nantucket "Bracket" which is a woven cuff with scrimshaw etchings. Quite stunning. You can check out his website at www.bracklet.com .

This particular basket is a six inch berry basket and one of my first projects after getting my first Nantucket mold. Being a novice, I made every mistake you can make on this basket and even put the base on backwards and the staves on upside-down. When I brought it back to Peter Finch and showed it to him, he laughed about it and made a bit of fun so I never really finished the basket because it had gotten off on the wrong foot. It has sort of sat around my shelves for several years. Today, I pulled together a drill with my husbands help and got the handle on and the shell motif on the bottom. You may notice that I signed my name on the backwards bottom M. Smith. This was made before I married Mr. Abbott (which was 6.5 years ago) and became Melissa Smith Abbott. 

If you look at the detail of the staves in this basket you can see how they taper off to the top. This is not supposed to be how it is the tapering should be next to the base. Oh well, it still looks ok and if I didn't tell you, you wouldn't know unless you had an eye for that detail.

The base was also put on backwards and this square part should be on the inside of the basket while the rounded part on the inside should be on the outside. I guess it is a matter of taste and yes I can now see my error. The rounded part would look better on the outside but in my mind the stability of the base should be first and foremost and that is why I probably picked this side when I blindly started this basket, forgetting half of what I had learned from Peter Finch.

I decided to use some bone beads for the handle and I used a screw type nut and bolt affair on the handle as well. I think it looks stunning all finished even if the staves and bottom are a little topsy turvy!

It feels really good to get some projects finished up and make room for more basket projects.
Thanks for reading my blog and for all you basket makers out there, you know you all have the backwards basket someplace on some shelf. I know it! I had one and it took guts to drag it out and finish it in spite of its defects. In hindsight, they are sweet defects and I have learned to love them. Happy Basket making!

Kind Regards,  Melissa Abbott

Trip to Black Whale Gallery Hyannis, MA and meeting Scrimshaw Artist Nancy Lyons while consigning two of my Pine Needle Baskets

"Saharaha" on left and "Web of Space and Time"
Pine Needle Baskets consigned at The Black Whale Gallery

Nancy Lyons owner of The Black Whale Gallery

www.blackwhalegallery.com
349 B Main St., Hyannis, MA 02601
508-771-8600

My Friend Geri, who lives on Cape Cod and whose Mother was a student of Gladys Ellis the famous Mattapoisett Basket Maker, took me to visit The Black Whale Gallery in Hyannis, Massachusetts recently. The owner Nancy Lyons has been a scrimshaw artist for over 30 years. Her work is stunningly detailed. I was interested in meeting her because of her scrimshaw but also because her aunt was a little known Gloucester photographer in the 1920's named Amy Addison. Amy Addison took wonderful photographs of the Gloucester Schooners and waterfront in both Gloucester and Rockport. Amy Addison was also a printmaker and made beautiful etchings and prints of the waterfront as well. She left her body in 1976 but Nancy Lyons, her niece still carries the energy of her work and has written a book which includes her aunts work. Part of the book was also reproduced recently in Wooden Boat magazine.  

Sailors Valentines in case

Nantucket Baskets and
Ivory Scrimshaw in case

Nancy Lyons and my friend Geri looking at a necklace

The Gallery

Gorgeous Nantucket Baskets

I loved The Black Whale Gallery and meeting Nancy Lyons. There is nothing like travel to get fresh inspiration. Since making my Pine Needle Buddha purse, I want to make more Mattapoisett style Pine Needle purses. The tradition of the Nantucket purses as we know it today may have originally been made in Pine Needles and whale bone before the whalers sailed to Asia and brought back Cane and Rattan to use for basketry.The local Massachusetts native population made baskets from Pine Needles originally and I am of the ilk that if you were to go back in time and "see" what the baskets looked like before whaling trips of the 1850's, they would be Pine Needles. You know back in those days there were no plastic bags and fabric was ultra expensive. A persons basket was their personal receptacle for food, personal items, storage, and even cooking. There are stories that people etched their names in whalebone onto their personal baskets originally so that after the church suppers in Nantucket, everyone would know whose baskets were whose. The baskets were usually round, made of ash and cane and made over a mold of an old spar, mast, or boom from a ship. The nesting baskets were made on The Nantucket Lightships during off hours by the men stationed there to sell to summer tourists on the island beginning in the 1880's. Baskets from the 1800's are quite valuable and collectible. The Lightships were anchored on the shoals off Nantucket during that time functioning as mobile Lighthouses of sorts. It must have been lonely, with hours of idle time. The men filled the hours with making baskets as both a hobby and an art.

 Later in the 1940's and 1950's a Nantucket maker commercialized the Nantucket Purse. His name was Jose Formoso Reyes and he stylized the Nantucket purse with a carved Ivory Whale on the top and a swing handle or leather braided strap. Those baskets were originally known as "Friendship Baskets"  and quickly became the style and rage of visiting summer people and tourists on Nantucket. Hard to believe this but they retailed for $15 then.

My Pine Needle creations feel right at home next to the
Ivory Scrimshaw and Nantucket Baskets

I still imagine the very early local Wampanog tribe making Pine Needle baskets on Nantucket and I do believe there was a tradition of this in Mattapoisett as there was a huge native american population there. We shall never really know because natural fiber and textiles disappear over the years but if you were to squint your eyes, on an anthropological level, it all makes sense. For some reason, this bit of history, while not important to others, inspires me.

The photos above the cases are
Amy Addison Gloucester Photos from 1920's

I love using traditional materials at hand to create useful and creative objects of beauty and function. The whole tradition of the Nantucket Sailors Valentines, Baskets, Scrimshaw, and other Oceanic creative endeavors with a history of using natural materials available is, to me, amazing. When I see Pine Trees growing on the shore, it makes sense to me that this fiber was important.

Amy Addison Gloucester Waterfront Photos

Couple this with great, practically unknown Gloucester waterfront photos in this gallery and I am mesmerized. The Black Whale Gallery is really something special. I felt supported to extend my craft to a creative edge just by going there and seeing all the work of all the basket artists the gallery represents.

More Nantucket Bags and Baskets

So, it makes perfect sense that I consigned my baskets to a place with Nantucket style art, scrimshaw, and other oceanic Massachusetts artists. It was hard for me to leave my baskets someplace. They seem part of me. I picked each pine needle off the grass just as it was freshly fallen and then crafted the baskets stitch by stitch with great love and intention. to me, they are works of art, an expression of a greater whole and a spiritual affinity for the world around me. I have no idea if anyone else will "get" the expression of this work but it feels right and good that I left them at the Black Whale Gallery amongst the old Gloucester photos and Sailors Valentines.

I am going to be working with Nancy Lyons in a collaboration of sorts on my next basket and I will post photos as soon as I get that started. I want to try my hand a Tenneriffe and Ivory Pine Needle Basket Purse in a Mattapoisett Style but with an updated Fiber Arts modern feel. Art for Arts sake, yeah, it is where it is at. There is always a lot of discussion about authenticity in Nantucket basketry. I think the authenticity comes from within and it isn't a historical thing from the past. What gives a basket its energy and light is the makers intentions with form, functionality, and creative expression, no matter when and where it was made. I don't think I could ever try to "exactly copy" a style to sell or pass off as a tradition. I can only envision my own new style and expression in basketry!

Thanks for sharing my trip to Cape Cod with me and my visit to The Black Whale Gallery meeting Nancy Lyons, Amy Addison with my dear friend Geri Gastar. There is more to come....

Kind Regards, Melissa Smith Abbott

The Mermaid Basket

 While I was in Merritt Island, Florida during February 2012, I decided to do a Sculptural style Pine Needle Basket using a reproduction Mermaid Scrimshaw center as a motif. I had gathered a great many really wonderful Florida Long Leaf Pine Needles from a park in Merritt Island after a great windstorm. After washing them in Dawn and laying them outside in the sun to dry, I imagined the center of the basket surrounded by some small tibetan bone beads I had.

 This is the beginning of the mermaid Basket using black Crawford's linen waxed thread. While this was all being pulled together, it is interesting to note that there were many manatees gathering in the canal next tothe dock of our rental house. The house was at the very end of a small offshoot canal off the Banana River waterway there. We were observing them, and feeding them some lettuce leaves. It is thought that sailors imagined the manatees as mermaids. They have trumpets like an elephant but sort of look like a hippo. One night very late, we heard lots of trumpeting in the canal. Waking up out of a dead sleep, I couldn't imagine what was going on. in actuality the bedroom was right next to the canal and we were sleeping virtual steps from about 50 gathered manatees.

 As it happened, and all of this happened while I was working on this basket, and as I started my first sculptural interpretations of waves and bubbles surrounding the Mermaid in the basket, I spoke with the owner of the house and I mentioned that on two subsequent evenings there was a great deal of commotion in the canal with the manatees. She told me that they came every year up into that canal to have their babies and what I was hearing was the births of their young!!

I could hardly believe it! I was witnessing a true miracle as I developed the Mermaid Pine Needle Basket. The reason I am telling you this is because this basket truly has the energy and miracles of Mermaids infused into it! It was a very exciting time!

This is a side view of the finished Mermaid basket and really holds the flavor of those special times with the manatees on Merritt Island, Florida during the winter of 2012!

The Buddha Pine Needle Purse - My first Purse attempt!

This is my first attempt at a Pine Needle Purse. I started the basket in Florida last march 2012. I used Chinese Soapstone and Tibetan Bone Findings, a Wooden Handle with Bone washers, Sandalwood and Rudraksha Beads as well as long leaf southern Pine Needles hand picked by me after a terrific windstorm on Merritt Island, Florida.

i orginally tried a smaller handle with the purse but was not able to open the bag well so I changed it out for a larger version. This picture shows the bag with the 1st version.

This is a photo of my friends Mother's Pine Needle Purse with Tennerife Lace. This is known as a Mattapoisett Purse. My purse is sort of an homage to this one. My next attempt will have tennerife in it as I have since learned how to do it.  I put this photo in to give you an idea of where my original inspiration comes from. I always loved Nantucket Purses and I even own a vintage one that was made on a Lightship in the early 1970's. This is the Pine Needle version, which may have been the absolute original style before the whalers brought back cane from Asia. Before that the native American's wove baskets from Pine Needles. It is a very old art and largely forgotten. I am sort of in love with it and it has taken me years to pull together the energy and where with all to attempt doing one of my own.

The beginnings of the Purse actually looked like this. There is a small soapstone buddha on the bottom of the basket and the row of rudraksha beads which are actually from a type of Asian Evergreen tree serve as the feet of the purse bottom.

This is a photo of when I was building up the sides of the basket.

This is a photo of when I started the purse lid. It was a challenge to try to get it to fit on the basket itself. I didn't do the best of jobs but I managed a lip on the inside, you can see it pictured here.

This is me pinning in the brown velvet lining I gave the basket purse. I managed to sew a little pocket into the side too!

 A Close up of the Tibetan Bone Om and Dorje clasp I fashioned from the pieces I bought at a Bead store. I used leather wrapped in Bee's Waxed Crawford's Irish Linen to wrap the basket, hinges, and clasps.

This is the beginning of the back of the basket and the hinges I made. This shot only shows it partially done but it is interesting to see photos of the basket while it was still in process.

I don't think this will be my last Purse attempt. I am designing a much more ambitious design with Tennerife for my next basket. I just finished a little basket with only one Tennerife motif in the center but it was a good one to start one. I will be graduating to multiple Tennerife designs on my next one.

Thanks for looking at the blog and if anyone has any insights into making Pine Needle Purses please comment as I am always looking to discuss!!


Kind Regards, Melissa