Bamboo woven knots

Awhile ago, I decided to start collecting bamboo knot brooches.  I thought that I might be able to duplicate them and make my own.  Well, that day hasn't arrived yet.  But here the ones that I've purchased.  I love them because they are so small and delicate.  (The brooches are 1 to 3 inches wide.)The left piece of the butterfly's wing broke after one wearing.

There is a tiny woven knot on the left 'stem.'

The earrings are teeny!

I hope you enjoyed seeing them!

bamboo

I now have a small supply or prepared bamboo strips, but since I don't know the proper way to split them down, I'm using them 'as is.'  This means that I can't do small, detailed weaving with it.  Just big stuff.

I made my first basket about 36 years ago, while working at the Grand Canyon.  Using pine needles from the forest floor, I made my first, rudimentary coiled basket.    I later wove baskets with reed, willow, bark, vines, rushes, and other plant materials, but never bamboo. 

Years later, I moved to the Northwest and met Japanese basket weaver, Jiro Yonezawa.   I’ve been very fortunate to learn from this patient instructor.  Teaching a roomful of American women, happily chattering and weaving, must have been trying at times.  However, through those workshops, I developed an appreciation for Japanese baskets and bamboo as a basketry material.  We were spoiled though, because Jiro always beautifully prepared bamboo strips for us to weave with.  I was learning how to weave with bamboo, but I didn’t know how to prepare it.  To me, it is an essential part of making a basket, and making it all my creation. 

 

I’ve observed Jiro preparing bamboo strips several times, but never had the opportunity to do it myself.  An assortment of tools and lots of practice are required.  (Japanese basketry apprentices spend about  10 years learning about bamboo and weaving before going  independent .)  Since I lived several hours away from Jiro, I never learned how to do it.   So I diverted my bamboo interests in another direction.  I found bamboo baskets at thrift shops, and cut them apart, saying I’m sorry to the basket maker at least fifty times.  I studied photos of Japanese baskets in books and online, and then made my own.

My first upcycled bamboo basket: 

Here are a few of the baskets I made with Jiro Yonezawa many years ago. (All strips prepared by Jiro.)  There are more, but I can't find the photos at this moment.

I made this in my first workshop with Jiro at Patty Canoy's studio.  Were you there?

Thanks for reading.  It's fun to go back and look at what I've made through the years. 

One of the highlights of my trip included a visit with Shyam Badan Shresthra, the managing director of the Nepal Knotcraft Centre.  As a teacher, she was very interested in handcrafts.  She began this company in 1984, with two other people.  In the beginning, they were making and selling macrame items, but gradually started making baskets.
A traditional Nepali basket is coiled, has many color changes, and takes a long time to make.

Shrethra's goal was to employ Nepali village women so that they could earn their own incomes, increase their educations, and support their families.  She came up with some other designs that weren't so time consuming, and thus more marketable.

 About one hundred women make baskets and other items for sale. One of their retail outlets is "Ten Thousand Villages."   http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/nepal/nepal-knotcraft

Shresthra has researched Nepalese basketry fibers.  The baskets from the Knotcraft Centre are all made with local materials. So far, she has found at least 42 plants for basket weaving. Here are some bamboo baskets.

Other items include pillows, stools, mats, purses, loom woven mats and lamp covers, corn husk angels, and more.  I saw items made from papyrus, water hyacinth cord, rush, banana fiber, palm leaves, and many other plants that I was not familiar with.

Shyam Badan Shresthra is an amazing businesswoman with strong social and environmental consciousness.  Developing this business has not been an easy journey.  There have been many ups and downs through the years, but she has weathered them all.  I believe that she is an inspirational figure to all.