Basket Case!

Have you ever said "I'm a basket case"?  Then there is the laugh track, "taking a college course like basket weaving"!  Implying that you are not a serious student!  Well, excuse me!  Have you ever looked at your baskets?  Everyone of those baskets is handmade by a person!! or maybe many people had a hand in twists and turning the reeds!  A basket is a weaving!

I bring this up now as we are packing to move to another location and I come across my baskets--oh so decorative and useful for storage.  I have many--some I've collected over the years; others were gifts.  While living in Venezuela it was a treat to find that perfect basket made in the Orinoco Delta--in fact, I collected so many--large, small, smaller!

Loved these little baskets!

and these lovely trays or plates!

It was my passion to collect a basket from every state I visited--one from Louisiana made from Palmetto leaves, another from dried pine needles; in fact, you can make a basket from any fiber that is bendable.  There are baskets made from split oak, weeping willow, sweet grass ( smell so wonderful!)

Years ago, we had a basket weaving obsession!  We gathered our own vines, willows, anything that would make a weaveable warp and weft--we had such fun invading our friends backyard and nearby fields!  Then we sat by the swimming pool as the vines soaked, shared stories, laughed and wove our own special basket.