The early humans, hunters and gatherers, learned to weave, all over the world, baskets to harvest and preserve their food, out of grasses, roots, shoots, bark, bamboo, willow, even out of the baleen of the great whales.
Baskets are symbols of our humanity. When a little primate had the idea to combine a few sticks or grasses together to carry his food to its den, it took a step to become a human. There is no machine to make baskets.
In this last century, as we know, plastic has replaced baskets, with the huge environmental problem that this triggers.
We know that we live now in an epoch which will leave big scars on the planet. We cannot do much to change the world but put a drop in the bucket in the right direction, each in our own ways.
The way I found and have been active at all my life is basketry, weaving willow baskets and growing willow.
To promote and help spread willow basketry is my goal.
By weaving our own baskets, we reconnect with something very deep in us, going back for centuries, as our ancestors were basket-weavers.
Each in our own way, we create these vessels which bring beauty and meaning into our lives.
Let’s take our power back and weave our own baskets.