Saturday 23 August 2008

Basket Cases

There was a weaving workshop at this week's homeschool meeting, which was wonderful.

Someone came and set up a Navajo-style loom and focalised the kids in weaving a traditional grass mat. Naturally, I took loads of photos, and also some video, which I've efficiently edited and uploaded to Youtube. Check it out:

It was loads of fun!

After lunch we moved on to basket weaving. By then the kids had gotten bored of weaving and drifted off to run around and play together, but the grown-ups had a great time weaving little baskets from palm fruit stems.

64 HS weaving

We were all first-time weavers, and we all turned out nice little baskets. 

66 HS weaving

It's been a dream of mine for quite a while to learn basket weaving. I've tried a few times, without any instruction, and always ended up with something that looks like a pile of sticks. This time, I powered through the first basket, and started on a more elaborate one. Here's the finished product, I'm so proud of it: 

68 HS weaving

Here's the group's collection of baskets. Pretty impressive huh :) 

71 HS weaving

9 comments:

  1. Your basket is really nice :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like fun, and a great collection of baskets:-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. im so glad that you are recording all this MF... i keep forgetting to bring along a camera but its nice to know that as long as we keep turning up to the same events ill have it recorded for posterity.

    mind you i dont know how M scored the matt... but its sitting in the middle of her bed room!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh RAD!!! :)

    Why can't I find cool things like this for MY KIDS?!

    Yeah, I know...come to Oz. :(

    --Rivkah

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful! You continue to inspire me as always ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. How beautiful. If only more hands in the world were devoted to creating beautiful things...

    ReplyDelete
  7. wow that is so beautiful! :) Something I would love to learn one day, too, inshallah! Looks gorgeous, and definitely not like the second basket from Your hands.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Karisma is silently kicking herself for not moving up your way last year when she had the chance. You guys do so much fun stuff! Our homeschool group is BORING! Well our old one was, the new one is starting to shape up nicely!

    Very nice baskets! I had a go at making them out of palm leaves before, that was funny!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well done!

    I love the collection shot.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your lovely words, witty banter and entertaining discussion :)