Tammy Keller May, a member artisan from Charleston, W.Va., brought her quick fingers and obvious enthusiasm for basketry to the cooperative over the Labor Day Weekend to demonstrate basket weaving for visitors. Tammy also brought a display of rugs, another of her passions.
A spoke of a basket is a flashing blur as Tammy winds reed over and under. The trailing hand bends the spoke up, the other whips the weave down and around, and then the trailing hand quickly pushes the newly placed weave tightly into place just before bending the next spoke. It's a matter of rhythm and feel for an experienced weaver. "I don't even have to look anymore," Tammy said.
Tammy brought several examples of her work to the cooperative. The baskets here include details of dyed reeds, solid oak and hickory handles, and some solid-base baskets. Tammy also designs baskets.
Tammy works on a flat-bottom basket while demonstrating her craft on the cooperative's lawn. This was her second basket of the morning, and here she is preparing to bend over the "spokes" of the basket after triming them at an angle to make them easier to tuck into the weave.
Tammy discusses the herring-bone weave that makes up the bottom of this basket. The bottom weave often creates a unique look for a basket. You can see that some of the spokes, near where she is holding the basket, have already been tucked into the weave.
The bottom of this completed basket features a "chicken-foot" design along the edges, created by splitting the reed.
A critical part of basket weaving, Tammy, says, is controlling the moisture levels of the wood. Here some reed is soaking in a large metal tub behind her worktable. Periodically, she will dip a part of a basket into the tub to soften it for easier weaving, or to help her shape it. It only takes a second or so to get the effect she needs, she said, because the reed was soaked for a longer period before starting and is quite moist. But as she works, particularly in an outdoor setting, the ends of the wood will begin to dry out. A quick dunk, however, and she's back in business.
Tammy started an impromptu lesson the morning of her demonstration. A visitor, who had taken a class in basketry elsewhere, was asking questions about a particular problem she had experienced in completing a basket. Tammy's response? "Let's make a basket!" Here they are measuring out lengths of reed to use as spokes.
