It
was all Little Orphan Annie’s fault—this fascination of mine with basket
making. You see, many years ago my husband John and I took in an orphan
lamb as a "pet" project for our 4 children on our north Missouri
farm. After bottle-feeding Annie for sometime—voila! Annie became the
grown-up sheep, later to be dubbed "Two-ton Annie". As our beloved
family pet, we hated to part with even the wool we collected from her,
so John bought me a spinning wheel and from a book I learned to spin.
In
September 1981, I learned about a craft workshop to be held in a nearby
community. Spinning was one of the classes to be taught. Enlisting two
girlfriends to accompany me, we took off for a weekend learning adventure.
While I chose the spinning class (I wanted to learn spinning tips from
a real live person), my friends enrolled in the basket class.
Hey—their
class looked much more exciting than mine did! Those baskets they made
were pretty—and useful, too. Plus…making a basket went much faster than
what I was learning...clean wool, card wool, spin wool, dye wool, ply
wool, begin knitting…well, you get the picture.
As
soon as we got home, I begged my friends to teach me everything they’d
learned in their basket class. Hence, my entry into the world of basket
making. (Yes, I still have my spinning wheel. It’s nice to look at,
and maybe I’ll even resurrect my spinning. Sometimes yarn makes a nice
accent when woven into baskets….)
Basketry
has become my fascination over the past 20 years. Classes attended in
Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee have exposed me to different
techniques and materials, and enabled me to learn from renowned teachers.
Now
I am weaving full time and have developed my own style, incorporating
as much of nature as I can into each creation. My current focus is on
deer antlers. (White tail deer are prolific here.) I also forage for
other materials such as willow and wild grapevines. Purchased fibers
not indigenous to Missouri are used as well, with the result being a
pleasing integration of materials to create an attractive and functional
basket.
Marcia Whitt
