Here are some snapshots from my second wonderful basketry workshops with JoAnn Kelly Catsos we had here in St. Louis August 24, 2008. JoAnn taught two incredible baskets, both woven of brown ash (or black ash which it is also known by) which she and her husband Steve prepare themselves. We started out with a 4" quadrafoil to warm up and then dove into a small 6" sewing basket with quadrafoil lid.

Clover Leaf Bowl
and
Small Sewing Basket with Quadrafoil Lid

August 2-4, 2008

JoAnn Kelly Catsos shows the class the first basket they will be making, a hand pounded black ash and cherry quadrafoil tub.

Joanne, all the way from the DC area, sands her uprights.

JoAnn's materials are so nice this almost seems unnecessary, but she wants everyone to have the "perfect" basket.

Jane from Texas and Leanne from St. Louis prepare their uprights.

JoAnn does a demonstration explaining the theory behind the quadrafoil pattern.

JoAnn demonstrates laying out the base of the basket.

Following JoAnn's great diagrams, Cindy, Mary and Annette begin.

There isn't much talking as Wanda, Joanne and Anne work away.

The bases start coming together.

JoAnn does a quick check of Jeana's base and everything looks great.

Mary builds out her base one upright at a time..

At first all the uprights are woven into the base loosely.

Taking a break from her duties as MBG Convention co-chair, Martha Kay starts shrinking her base.

Once "shrunk" all the uprights are nice and snug.

Joanne checks to make sure her base is perfectly square before mounting it to the mold.

Jeana adjusts her uprights on the mold.

Jane and Leanne make sure all their uprights are perfectly spaced.

Wanda checks her basket too.

Robin all the way from Wisconsin, does a final adjustment.

Once the uprights are spaced evenly the basket is ready for the dryer.

Just to make sure every weaver is perfect, JoAnn has the students sand the edges of each weaver.

Annette, Cindy and Mary prepare their weavers as their baskets dry.

With the baskets dried to the molds, JoAnn explains how to start the weaving.

JoAnn demonstrates adding an extra upright to the basket can be woven as a continuous weave.

After the demo Annette gets to work on her basket.

Anne jumps right in, making sure all of her uprights remain evenly spaced.

Jeana is already starting on her second weaver.

After weaving a few rows the quadrafoil pattern begins to appear.

The contrast between the heartwood uprights and the white sapwood weavers is subtle, but striking.

Mary weaves away.

Jane is out of the pattern and almost to the top of the mold.

Just a couple more rows.

The basket is ready to come off the mold.

Joanne proudly displays her basket ready to be finished off.

After drying a little packing is needed to level the basket.

Martha Kay carefully packs each row together.

Ann makes a few final adjustment to her basket.

The cherry center bands contrast nicely to the black ash and match the cherry rims.

Mini cable ties help get the rims placed on the basket.

JoAnn demonstrates starting the lashing.

The baskets are single lashed and easily finished.

Jane proudly displays her finished basket.

The next morning Joanne is ready to dive into the small sewing basket.

After yesterday's warm up everyone is ready to get going.

Wanda quickly sets up her quadrafoil base for the sewing basket lid.

Jeana references the diagrams JoAnn provides to set up the quadrafoil pattern.

JoAnn double checks Cindy's work.

Mary has all of her uprights woven together and is ready to start shrinking her base.

The base is progressively packed smaller and smaller.

Jane carefully goes around her base packing each row until the base is as small as possible.

With the base packed and squared it is lined up on the mold.

Again the baskets are banded to the molds.

All of the uprights are spaced evenly apart.

Lynn had a few delays getting to class, but once she made it she is raring to go!

Martha Kay begins weaving her lid.

Again after a few rows the pattern really begins to appear.

This basket is also woven on darker heartwood uprights and white sapwood weavers.

Only a certain number of pattern rows are woven before you begin to come out of the quadrafoil pattern.

Robin has her lid woven and off the mold.

JoAnn explains that there is one outside rim for the lid and one inside rim for the base.

Speedy Lynn has her lid woven and is already lashing.

JoAnn checks out Joanne's lid.

The base of the bottom half of the basket is laid out in the traditional manner.

The base is pinned to the mold.

The uprights are banded to the mold and spaced evenly.

Once dried the weaving can begin.

Anne weaves away, with only a over/under pattern it seems like a piece of cake.

On the last day of a busy workshop Mary relaxes and just weaves.

The baskets are only woven about half way up the mold then removed.

Annette begins the process of free-weaving the rest of the basket.

Cindy slowing brings the sides of the basket in smaller.

Leanne admires the shape of her basket.

Robin checks her weaver before adding a new piece.

Cindy about has her basket to the proper size.

JoAnn checks Jeana's basket to see how it is coming along.

JoAnn checks Joanne's basket to see where she should end her weaver.

With the basket level a binder row is added.

Cindy folds and clip the upright over the binder row.

Robin takes a break after clipping her uprights.

Once dried Anne removes her clips and cuts off the remaining uprights.

JoAnn uses her discriminating eye on a basket.

The lid only has an outer rim while the base only gets an inner rim.

Once the inner rim and a heavy piece of splint for the outside is in place it is cable tied.

JoAnn gives Wanda a quick lesson on starting the lashing.

With that, Wanda goes to work on her lashing.

Cindy carefully lashes her basket.

Robin gets her basket ready to be lashed.

Martha Kay is on the home stretch.

Annette proudly shows off her completed basket.

Annette and JoAnn and another successfully completed basket.

Leanne enjoyed her weaving time and not worrying about the upcoming MBG Convention (which of course turned out great).

Jane is ready to head back to Texas with another great basket.

Cindy, JoAnn, Robin and Mary all had a great time again weaving in St. Louis.

Look how standing on the bottom step can make you taller...

Jeana also enjoyed her weaving time and not worrying about her wedding planning.

Martha Kay, JoAnn and Anne are ready to come back in 2009.

Wanda shows her appreciation for all of JoAnn's help.

Lynn with only two days of weaving completed both her baskets and is taking home a JoAnn Kelly Catsos original too.

As always all the baskets turned out beautifully thanks to JoAnn's great teaching abilities and materials.

My Special Basket Project

I wove a basket on a mold I had made for my trip to the Johns C. Campbell Folk School in January 2008.

This basket is a half-scale replica of a Shaker woodchip basket.

JoAnn custom cut the materials to my specifications.

This is a replica of a work basket so is not woven as finely as other Shaker "fancy" baskets.

I made a jig or form to bend split white oak handles around.

With a lot of shaping on the handles done, they were notched and the rims dry fit to the basket.

The rim overlaps were scarfed and cabled tied in place in preparation for lashing.

The finished basket has a wooden divider held in place with metal clips, all of which I had to custom make for the basket. The original was lined with leather, but I chose a pin striped fabric as mattress ticking was also used.

Random Photos

As always JoAnn Kelly Catsos brought lots of kits, molds and tools to sell.

For some unexplained reason Pearl loved to lay on Leanne's lunch sack and only Leanne's.