In the rush and chaos that seems to define our lives during the growing season, I forget sometimes to stop and appreciate the things that emerge from Bob’s hands, working in the stillness of the night, while the rest of us sleep. Sometimes, a quiet moment to create can restore our bodies more than slumber (but not for long!).
Matt keeps promising to buy me one one of these days. I love his baskets and drool over them every meeting day
So lovely! Shannon, it looks like Bob is using purchased reed for his baskets. Has he ever experimented with home-grown materials? I found the book Basketmaking From Nature’s Bounty and found some amazing ideas in there for harvesting materials from our woods and wetlands.
Yes, we actually planted a plot of willow last year. One of the troubles we run into is customer acceptance and price points for consistent quality. So for a lot of his baskets he uses reed from annual crops…But that doesn’t diminish his drive to keep experimenting!