Threads 55: The celebration basket for 2020

The year 2020 was to have been the 200th anniversary of the settlement of our local town of Lanark. Unfortunately, it was also the year that Covid arrived, and closed all activities and celebrations. It also closed the ideas that the Lanark Highlands Basketry Museum had planned for the summer.

For this celebration I designed a special basket for the museum, combining both the basketry materials and techniques of the indigenous people with the materials and techniques of the settlers. This special celebration basket was inspired by a basket that had been donated to the museum and found hanging on a wall in a local barn. This large rectangular working basket (19"x11"x11") was made of split black ash, but the unusual part was that the border is strengthened by the use of a willow rod.

In this way I surmised the basket illustrated the coming together of the indigenous people with the settlers. 

It took me some time to discover the handles on this basket. It is difficult to find in the photo, so it is highlighted so you will be able to see them. Two supplementary weavers have been woven across but left unwoven in the center. These formed the two handles in the center of each side. Two supplementary weavers were also inserted across the base for strength.

My Centennial basket

I had planned to have a peeled black ash set up in order for people to make their black ash splints. I used mine which I had already prepared for the samples.

Using a rectangular form, I made two baskets (12" x 5" x5") . One with the traditional handles, and one with a regular handle. Through a little detective work, I did find out that this basket had to be made in the village by an indigenous basket maker in the 1960s.

This issue happens to be exactly 2 years since I began publishing Threads . It seemed an appropriate time to write about the celebration basket for the 200th anniversary which never happened!