ASH BASKETS, STORIES, COMMUNITY – Crafts workshop success at KAN on Feb 19th (see pictures in KAN blog archive February!)

Describing Victor Bear’s ash basket workshop with just a few words I feel I’d be better off writing a poem. Trained to the craft thoroughly since he was just a little child on his native Maliseet reserve, he now weaves his life stories and embodied knowledge into his baskets and to our 20-headed community of people listening and learning from him.

“First thing you gotta remember is it is You who is weaving the basket – and not to let the basket weave You. Otherwise, you will never make one!” Mr Bear is quiet and firm, with a laughing sparkle in his eye.

With our more than 20-headed group of kids and grown-ups, we get just a glimpse to the world of traditional ash basketry. We play with our readily provided materials from the annual rings of brown ash, we laugh, we eat a hearty and colorful lunch and weave some more till we’re done with our little masterpieces.

As a demonstration of what it takes to provide the materials, we get to witness Mr Bear pounding a log of ash with the back of his axe. Traditionally, a child would be taught the pounding first, and any new step in the process will be taught only after the previous is thoroughly mastered. Even today, Bear continues this tradition as a visiting crafts teacher for the children of his tribe. “I used to hate the basket work as a kid – other kids were outside having fun while we had to weave. But as I have gotten older, I have learned to appreciate my art.”

From this workshop I bring with me a sense of joy in community, doing things together and practicing old but useful crafts together with people old and young.

*

TIPS FOR BASKET MAKERS:

Tree: Pick brown ash. White ash is too hard, black ash is too brittle.
Pounding: dirt water spread out on the ash log will help you see where you have already pounded and thus be concise of not to hit the same spot twice.
Tools for making ash strips can be made by soaking pieces of yellow birch for 3 hours, then push in some razor blades to a wanted distance from each other (breadth of the to-be strip). Soaking will have made the birch wood porous, and it will re-harden and tighten around the blades to fix them when dry.
The outside annual rings are the strongest strips you can get for a heavy-duty basket.