Basket Weaving
About Basket Weaving
This class guides students through how to make a traditional California Native-style one-rod coiled basket with user-friendly raffia over a paper core. Examples of traditional basket materials (willow, redbud, bracken fern root, sedge) and one- and three-rod coiled baskets will be on hand for examination and discussion, plus information about cultural practices of the Miwuk, Pomo, and Paiute. Weavers will be able to take the materials home to finish their basket in their own time.
About Basket Weaving
Willow Polson has been creating since she was a small child, first learning how to sew doll house curtains at age five. As a teen (circa 1980) she began to learn California Native-style basketry from Dr. Julia Parker (Pomo/Miwok) in Yosemite Valley and has been a basketmaker for over 40 years, gathering all her own materials in a traditional way. She has demonstrated and taught traditional arts, including basketry, at a variety of museums, state parks and historic sites across California. Though not Native herself, she has Native consent to teach this class.