Native American Basket

[Bill Boehme]

This is a piece that I donated as an auction item for my clubs Christmas Banquet back in December. It is 14½ inches diameter maple. It is colored with Copic markers and finished with one coat of Minwax Antique Oil. I finished it just in time for the banquet and didn't even get a chance to take any pictures. Fortunately, I was able to borrow it back so that I could get some pictures.



The turning part was easy, between 3/16 and 1/4 inch thick. The beading part was a challenge because it got really limber, especially on the bottom so I had to hold it with my left hand (wearing a leather glove) while holding the beading tool with my right hand. Anyway, all that was the easy part. Next came the pyrography which took me a few months and made me cross-eyed.

Here is a closeup showing the rim detail.



I did something different which I haven't seen before on basket illusion pieces. I made a mold of the tenon area and then made a reverse mold. I used the reverse mold to make the foot with the braided rim so that the two surfaces made a suction fit to one another. This allowed me to glue the two pieces together with an invisible joint that still allowed for wood movement. Because the two pieces are about an eigth inch thick each, wood movement probably isn't really an issue, but I didn't want to take chances. Here is a shot of the foot.



And finally, here is a perspective shot that gives a better idea of the overall form.



The bidding sort of got out of hand as two different people decided that they just had to have it and the final bid was $2700.

The Acrylic easel is nice for displaying the piece, but not so great for photography. I switched to using a scroll chuck with a pencil clamped in the jaws. Becazuse a shiny chuck body can cause hot spots on the background, I wrapped Gorilla Tape around the chuck body.

 

[Bernie Hrytzak]

Basket

Bill, I like the form and the detail, well done! Nice selling price as well.
How long did this take you?

 

[Andy Chen]

That's very nice work, Bill! I am impressed.

 

[hockenbery]

Bill

that is one you definitely want to have photos of.

Terrific piece! I especially like the braided rim and foot.

Thanks for sharing

 

[Donna Banfield]

That's a pile of work you did, Bill. And done very well. It's beautiful!

 

[Odie]

As with others here, I admire this piece, Bill......Very well done!

ko

 

[Gretch Flo]

Wow!!!!!!!-a work of love.- Aas above, how many hours/weeks/months do you have into that??? Gretch

 

[Brent@TurnRobust]

Bill, if you're fishing for compliments, you certainly have mine. Well done !

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

Wow! I'm impressed.

 

[Jamie Straw]

Just phenomenal, Bill. My husband has a small collection of NA baskets, so I have great appreciation for the various designs. Your work astounds me!

 

[Joe Greiner]

Amazing! And monumental patience.

Regarding the separate foot: By "mold" and "reverse mold," do you mean just templates or something more complicated?

If the grain of the two pieces are aligned, movement shouldn't be a problem. But I guess it's hard to see the grain after the beading.

Joe

 

[Charlie Knighton]

great piece....tks for sharing

 

[Justin Stephen]

That's a spectacular piece, Bill. Well done.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

That is one great looking piece. I do not think I could have let it go.

 

[Douglas Ladendorf]

Gorgeous piece Bill and wonderful workmanship. Very generous donation.

Doug

 

[Bill Boehme]

Bill, I like the form and the detail, well done! Nice selling price as well.
How long did this take you?

Wow!!!!!!!-a work of love.- Aas above, how many hours/weeks/months do you have into that??? Gretch

That's very nice work, Bill! I am impressed.

As with others here, I admire this piece, Bill......Very well done!

Thank you Bernie, Gretch, Andy, and Odie for the very nice compliments. Gretch, I lost track of the time involved, but it spanned about a year with some down time waiting and/or searching for tools. The pyrography was terribly tedious and my eyes could only tolerate about 30 minutes at a stretch. I was hoping to have it ready for an exhibit called Eclectic Wood in December 2014 but that was overly optimistic.

I should give credit to Jim Atkins for inspiring me to get off dead center when he showed how he makes his basket illusion pieces at SWAT several years ago. My first attempt was done with a Sorby beading tool. It wasn't terribly bad, but it also was obvious that it could be better. I discovered Dave Schweitzer's beading tools and after some phone conversations with Jim and also Dave I was off and running ... sort of ... until I hit a snag. It seems like Detail Master, the maker of the pyrography pens for burning the beads, was getting very unreliable. I talked to Jim Atkins and he was having the same problem in getting pens. Fortunately, Jim was eventually able to get some bead burning pens before Detail Master went out of business for good.

I owe special gratitude to Harvey Meyer following our discussion about this on the WoW forum, he managed to get PJL Enterprises (maker of the Optima pyrography systems) to come out with a special design bead burning pen that matches the beads created by Dave Schweitzer's beading tools. I must say that it is the best of all of the bead burning tips that I have used.

I first got interested in doing something like this during a vacation to the Pacific Northwest in 2009 when we visited the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum in The Dalles, Oregon. I was especially interested in the basket style of the Klickitat people. I still haven't made any Klickitat style pieces, but they are on my list. The design of this particular basket is similar to one that Jim had at SWAT. I know practically nothing about Native American basket designs at this stage so I am mostly incorporating some common design elements. Jim is the absolute master in making these pieces. I can't imagine the skill it takes to maintain such precise accuracy in details that his pieces have.

.... that is one you definitely want to have photos of.

Terrific piece! I especially like the braided rim and foot.....

Amazing! And monumental patience.

Regarding the separate foot: By "mold" and "reverse mold," do you mean just templates or something more complicated?

If the grain of the two pieces are aligned, movement shouldn't be a problem. But I guess it's hard to see the grain after the beading .....

Thanks for the really nice compliments, Al and Joe. "Template" is the word that I was searching for, but couldn't remember. I thought that I would show a couple details on making the braided foot. The following photo shows the bottom of the basket with the tenon. Sitting next to it is the "foot" that I created separately. The two pieces needed to have a good fit because I didn't want to flood the entire bottom with epoxy.



I used epoxy putty and Saran wrap to mold a cross section of the tenon area (bottom item). Next I made a "positive" from the mold (middle item) and used it to gauge my progress on getting the mating surface of the foot to match the tenon ... the two parts are shown in the next photo. I was a little apprehensive about this ... figuring that most likely it was going to turn into a mess. However, I couldn't have asked for anything better. The two parts made a nice suction fit.



The little item at the top of the photo snaps onto the rim of the platter and is used to mark pencil lines before burning the braid pattern.

Bill, if you're fishing for compliments, you certainly have mine. Well done !

Gee, Brent, was it that obvious? BTW, you make nice big boy toys ... er, I mean serious woodturning machines.



Dang, this is almost more fun than the law allows.

Wow! I'm impressed.

That's a pile of work you did, Bill. And done very well. It's beautiful!

Just phenomenal, Bill. My husband has a small collection of NA baskets, so I have great appreciation for the various designs. Your work astounds me!

great piece....tks for sharing

That's a spectacular piece, Bill. Well done.

That is one great looking piece. I do not think I could have let it go.

Gorgeous piece Bill and wonderful workmanship. Very generous donation.

Zach, Donna, Jamie, Charlie, Justin, Gerald, and Doug, thank each of you very much for the very nice compliments. Jamie, I'm tryiing to learn as much as I can about the various Native American basket types and designs. Do you know of any good reference sources?

 

[Charlie Knighton]

Do you know of any good reference sources?

the ole reliable: Southwestern Pottery---Anasazi to Zuni by Allan Hayes and John Blom my copy is copyright 1996

I have just received copies from my cousin Carole some books that her father Charlie had........they touch on pottery, baskets, textiles, skinwork, bone, stone, quill & bead, metalwork

North American Indian Arts by Andrew Hunter Whiteford 1983

American Indian Collectibles first edition by Dawn E. Reno 1988

its a fascinating subject and actually covers the whole of the americas

 

[Bill Boehme]

Thanks for the information, Charlie.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

I was especially interested in the basket style of the Klickitat people

well my book spells it different, but I have never been very good at spelling Klikitat

"Stiff coiled baskets are made here with cedar or spruce root bundles. Imbrication is unique to this area. A surface of rectangular blocks is produced by covering the coils with a strip of colored grass or cherry bark which is fastened by folding it under each stitch when the coils are sewn. All imbricated baskets are sometimes called Klikitat, but only the tall narrow ones with looped rims are unique to this tribe."

the displayed basket looked like desk trashcan with large connected W's all the way around, also looped edge, conical with slightly smaller bottom than top of form.....it did have a flat bottom.....would have looked cool with a calabash bottoom

 

[Bill Boehme]

well my book spells it different, but I have never been very good at spelling Klikitat

"Stiff coiled baskets are made here with cedar or spruce root bundles. Imbrication is unique to this area. A surface of rectangular blocks is produced by covering the coils with a strip of colored grass or cherry bark which is fastened by folding it under each stitch when the coils are sewn. All imbricated baskets are sometimes called Klikitat, but only the tall narrow ones with looped rims are unique to this tribe."

the displayed basket looked like desk trashcan with large connected W's all the way around, also looped edge, conical with slightly smaller bottom than top of form.....it did have a flat bottom.....would have looked cool with a calabash bottoom

Your spelling is probably correct ... and, that is the way that I thought that it was spelled, but the Columbia Gorge Museum photo archive had it spelled with a "c". Probably some minion cataloging all the photos doesn't know how to spell. They recently "improved" their site and now it is practically impossible to find anything in their archives. And, I'll bet that somebody is really proud of their "improved" archive system.