Two of our favorite fiber art classes (along with the other 35 this year!) are batik and willow basketry. Luckily for us they were recently in session, back-to-back, in the Walter Studio. For each, their signature fragrance fills the studio, with either the warm beeswax or the sweet scent of willow and other fresh-cut botanicals.
In the Introduction to Batik class taught by Anne Landre, students layered colors on cotton fabric, working with beeswax. Designs were created by drawing or tracing directly on the fabric, by using templates or by working with antique copper stamps (tjaps). Then, a repeated series of wax applications and different dye baths were repeated to achieve fabulous results.
With a combination of precision and surprise, we don’t think there can be more fun had than several days of batik with a terrific instructor like Anne!
Using willow as the basis for rib-style baskets, Jo Campbell-Amsler shows students in her Natural Baskets: Grow & Weave class how to incorporate other gathered materials such as bark, sticks, driftwood, iris leaves made into cordage, and more, into their work. Looking at all that nature provides, you can begin to see the potential for baskets everywhere.
Each of the baskets made in class mark a place and time measured in the earth’s terms…land, rain and sunshine.
Jo likes to begin each morning of class with a reading or poem. We’ll use her own words here: “I love the natural world around me with all of its wonder and beauty. By gathering and shaping into baskets some of nature’s treasures, I try to capture that feeling. By teaching, I try to extend that awareness to others around me, so that they too can appreciate the beauty of what has always been there.”
We’ll have to wait until next summer for batik but we’re excited to see Jo again at the end of October here at Sievers, along with Lee Zieke Lee and many other willow weavers, for Willow Connections 2023.
