H: 1" | W: 11" | D: 11"
After coiling a few small baskets, I can count on getting an itch to do something larger. And so every once in a while I do a tray. With this one I had a sunflower in mind, but couldn’t be sure until well along that the bead colors that I had chosen and the pattern that I was generating would read right by the end. One thing complicating a work like this where the beads are on the inner/front face of the piece is that each bead, as its loop is being tightened wants to be on the back/rear face and so needs to be pulled around to the front at the last moment. A work of this diameter takes about twelve feet of waxed linen thread to add a next coil and that takes almost an hour. Typically the next-made basket is a small one.
Your Name:
David Brinkman
City:
York Beach
State:
ME
Artist Statement:
My background as a now-retired chemical engineer/patent and copyright attorney, self-taught as a pine needle basket-maker has equipped me to try to realize in pine needles, waxed linen thread and glass beads anything that is even approximately rotationally symmetrical. Each stitch is pulled through and tightened in place using a pair of needle-nosed pliers.
Most Thursdays in Summer I do pine needle basket-making demos at the Visitors’ Center of the Old York Historical Society in York Maine and in Winter at the Old Florida Outdoor Center & Gallery in Englewood Florida, where a selection of my baskets is available.
See more of my work on my website https://nubblepoint.weebly.com