Judy Goodman: Basketry Materials
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Found materials are from the Pacific west coast and may be almost anything. I collect Arbutus and cedar branches, Yellow Cedar bark, iris and lily leaves, honeysuckle vines, shells, odd shaped bits of wood. This is a basket of shell fragments and wood bits scraped and sanded. Most are knots collected from the remains of trees rotting into the forest floor. Knots form when a tree puts out a branch – they are like the roots of the branch. These curved and pointed bits are very hard and decay last. I drill small ones and use them as beads. Bigger ones form the centre of a basket base. Knot Basket
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I use all types of flat, round and oval commercial reeds, cane, rattan, seagrass and fibre rush for their flexibility and uniformity of size. And they are easy to dye. In dying reed, predicting colour is very difficult but you do get some wonderful surprises.
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I use kelp sometimes, jute and lots of seagrass. Seagrass does not grow here but it looks like it should. I use all the different sizes of seagrass braided and dyed.
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I grow Iris and day lilies and harvest the leaves if the deer do not eat them first. Also people give me yellow iris from their ponds when they are pulling it out because it is very invasive.
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