Note the cool weather spots on the bottom of these bowls!
Abiding the request of a friend, here are some more basket creations. This was a set of four basket bowls I had made for a lady back in the fall of 2007. She wanted to send them as Christmas presents. They are gourds which I had let weather outside to create beautiful spotted patterns. I used a Dremel to cut them in half, then brushed out the inner webbing and seeds. To create the holes in which I would attach the pine needles, I heated a nail over a candle and burned holes around the rim. I had tried a small drill bit but I didn't care for the "clean" look it left behind. The hot nail burns an uneven hole as it sinks through the wall of the gourd and blends better this the dark weather spots. These bowls were approximately 6" wide and 4-5" tall. I enjoy the blending of gourds and needles, but it is often hard to find the right gourd. I still have two trash bags full of gourds out in the shed awaiting their fate, but as always work gets in the way. Ahhhhhh, if only I could make a living on my basketry.
Wow! Peggy and I are enjoying your basket pictures after getting your call this morning.
I love your description of burning the holes with nails. I've done that as practice on a gourd I was experimenting on with wood burning tools, and have wanted to try it on a basket too.
I agree the drilled holes look too uniform and exact on the style of bowls we make, and distract from, rather than enhance the interesting mold splotches.
It all started in the spring of 2007 when I moved to Durango. That's when I checked Jim out. I was working as a cashier at a grocery store and he came through my line on my first shift in Durango. It took a few months for him to ask me out on our first date, but from there it was as if we had always known each other. He proposed by a small mountain lake and we were married 8 weeks later... Naked on a mountain top. A beautiful wedding just between the two of us, on a quilt under the sun at nearly 12,000 feet in the brillant blue sky. Now together we hike, mountain bike, trail run, motorcycle, snowboard and everything else you can imagine outside. We have stable jobs, a modest home, a crabby old cat and two knuckle-headed dawgs. We will never be rich in money but we are already rich in love and life. We are living the Durango Dream!!
*** A NEW addition to our Durango family is my son Stown!!! (arrived 21 Oct 2010)***
Seana & Jim Brandon & Stown Ross
2 comments:
Wow! Peggy and I are enjoying your basket pictures after getting your call this morning.
I love your description of burning the holes with nails. I've done that as practice on a gourd I was experimenting on with wood burning tools, and have wanted to try it on a basket too.
I agree the drilled holes look too uniform and exact on the style of bowls we make, and distract from, rather than enhance the interesting mold splotches.
By the way, good choice of color for the backdrop, the baskets look great on that green!
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