Basket weaving club

Every few weeks, mostly around Brooklyn. Free, for the love of 💚🌿🧺🌎🌻. Sign up if you want to know when/where it’s happening, and for occasional other dispatches from the cutting edge of basketry.

What is going on here though?

A few years ago, I got into weaving baskets from shrub willow sticks. It’s a very ancient craft, one of my favorites, and I have learned a few things about it:

I have learned that willows have many amazing ecosystem benefits. They are wonder plants in many ways and at many scales - from the scale of a garden bed or a little vase where you’re propagating cuttings, to the scale of all the sea and all the air.

I have learned that willow sticks smell really good. That’s one reason it’s one of my favorite crafts.

I have started to grow my own willows and convince friends and acquaintances to grow willows on their land, in hopes of developing a plentiful local supply. And with big dreams of the above ecosystem benefits 👆🏻

I have learned that a lot of people are really excited to make baskets when they learn about it, but most people know hardly anything about it - even people who are otherwise into knitting, weaving, gardening, witchery, rhizomes, and the like. This is wild because humans have been making willow baskets for many thousands of years, pretty much wherever we live.

I love the notion that seems to be current in climate philosophy circles rn - that in the face of doom, political self sabotage, disconnection from the earth, etc, we might each find one small thing we can do to help, and work hard on that thing. For me, this is that thing. I want to share my basket making practice with more people who would like it too. I believe this puts us in a relationship of closeness, healing, and abundance with the earth and each other.

That sounds overblown. I do believe it though. Let me put it another way:

ME: I like making baskets because it makes me feel closer to the earth.

MY KID, AGE 4: Earth! That’s where we live!

ME: that’s right! People forget that a lot.

KID: yeah, I forget it a lot.

ME: me too.

Where do you get your willows?

From Howard Peller of Living Willow Farm in Ohio. They come in very long UPS boxes. Howard also sold me the live willow cuttings that are currently growing out around the region, and taught me how to keep them alive.

What are your goals here?

I want more people who would enjoy growing willows and making baskets, to know about it. I want myself, and all these basket friends, to have the technical powers and the supply chain to make baskets. I want to make nice baskets to use and to give away.

I think it’s realistic that there would be enough demand for basket willows, that farmers could sell them at a greenmarket stand. The way we can buy yarn from the greenmarket, we could also buy willows. So this is sort of a medium term goal.

I want to encourage myself and others to think about our relationship with the earth in terms of abundance, joy, and care - what gifts does the earth want to give us? What should we do with the gifts? How should we best manage the land, to cultivate these happy relationships? To what extent do my enemy and I share these same desires? Regardless of that, what should I be working on right now?

What is going on with the money angle here?

I’m in this for love, vs. money, and I’m lucky that this is possible. I have a job in soft capitalism already - I’m the founder of Hazel Village Toys - and I have enough money from that. I figure the materials for a small to medium basket cost about $10, although I hope that will come down as our home-grown supply comes on line. So if you can chip in to cover the cost of more willows, that is much appreciated and it keeps the project chugging along. Other ways you can help, worth more than rubies:

• Tell your friends who would like this too

• Get good enough at baskets that you can teach new people at basket club, and/or run basket club meetings! Which means bringing soaked willows and a blanket to the park and helping people out. As a teacher, I have a somewhat chaotic sink-or-swim style. Maybe you can do better?

• Grow willows on your land - which is, as you’ve maybe gathered, win/win/win

Are you guys going to midsommar me?

No. I am a good witch. Also an Episcopalian? That might make you feel better or worse about this whole thing, both are valid I think….

I’m chewing on a theory that wicker man type horror stories are so scary for us because we have distanced ourselves so much from the earth and we are actually really stressed out about that. But I haven’t really seen enough of those movies to talk about it with confidence.

This is very long! Thanks for reading! Come to basket club! More useful and stimulating content to come soon!