Stowe Basketry Festival 2019

Last week I traveled up to Stowe Vermont for the second time to attend the annual Stowe Basketry Festival. This year I had the honor of working with Karen Tembreull for three days. Karen’s work can best be described as mixed medium basketry. She works with more “naturals” than anyone else I know and she works them all together in the most beautiful ways. We worked with birch bark, elm bark, willow bark, bass wood, poplar bark, cedar bark, iris leaves, softstem bulrush, waxed cotton cord and wool. She is a wonderful teacher who is so generous with her materials and her knowledge. Her baskets are all original designs she creates for teaching at conferences like Stowe. If you ever seen Karen’s classes on a conference list, you shouldn’t hesitate to sign up.

It was a really lovely three days. The conference at Stowe is like having a vacation at the same time. We stayed at the luxurious Von Trapp Lodge which we still haven’t fully utilized (still haven’t gotten to those hot tubs and pool). Classes end at 4:30 and your options as to what to do afterward are numerous. We had some pretty descent weather so most days my boyfriend and I went out to eat and explored around Stowe and the surrounding towns.

The first day of the classes I took was working up a medium sized square basket with cedar bark, willow bark and some birch bark as well. The picture below is the layout of the base. We were done with this basket and moved onto small folded birch baskets. I only made one but still have the materials to make another.

On the second day we worked on Karen’s “Wisp of the Willow” basket that is woven with a base made from a vintage spigot handle. You can see in the pictures below how the base started. I had to take a picture of the inside of the basket because it was just too pretty. Eventually it got all covered up but the outside turned out to be even more beautiful.

We had a small class of four students so this was actually my favorite day of the three. We were all relaxed and happy as a small group. We worked on gentle twining around super soft cedar and got to chat all day. We managed to get a group shot which is always nice but normally never possible.

You can see the start of this basket in the picture below. Really a genius design and how much fun to incorporate some vintage hardware.

Oh the third day I worked on a bias bark basket. We started with very large strips of birch bark that were plaited up the sides and additional poplar and elm bark was woven over the tops of the birch. Karen said she saw a design like this one made out of paper but knew she could work it up in bark to look even more gorgeous.

Just some pictures of the lovely food and Vermont Cheese I got to eat over the three days. I can highly recommend the Von Trapp Brewery and Bierhall (splurge on the cheese dip for your pretzel, trust me), and also the Whip Bar and Grill in Stowe.

Last year when I arrived there was a large field full of cows, this year there was a field of sheep with their babies running around and eating all day. I kept trying to get a picture but every time we got back from lunchtime they were all sleeping up in the hills, probably after a long lunch as well.

On our way home from Vermont we took a slight detour to Massachusetts for the opening of the newest basketry exhibit that’s traveling the country. Massachusetts is the closest it was going to be to me so I figured I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go see it, and I’m so happy that I did. It was wonderful to see these baskets up close, even though I’ve seen many of these in pictures or in the book they are all part of.

I could only secretly hope as I was looking through the exhibit that maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to have my work featured in a collection such as this. Go to see it if you have the chance!