Wednesday, 18 April 2012

After an evening of Music and Art and Theatre


We have the bestest community art centre
Last night Chief Greg McKewan
demonstrated how the Mi'kmaq harvest ash trees
and weave their baskets.


I had to come home with one
and will obviously have to keep it out of reach of
nosy Rusty Pups!


The ash tree is a slow grower.
He has to find just the right tree
that has grown straight and tall.
It is amazing how he hits and bends long sections of the trunk
and makes it split into the thin strips they use.
Greg has made baskets for the queen
and other leaders from around the world.


Right now my basket holds a CD of Caleb Miles folk music.
But the basket is a good contender for holding daily scratchings with it gets bigger!
Caleb also entertained us last night.
He started off in Albuquerque and now we're lucky to have him here.

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8 comments:

  1. deanna7trees18 April 2012 at 11:33

    a beautiful basket. i have taken several basket classes. it is a very enjoyable craft.

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  2. Penny Berens18 April 2012 at 11:49

    Isn't it rough on the hands?

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    Replies
    1. deanna7trees18 April 2012 at 21:18

      it does take hand strength for parts of it. i guess anyone with arthritis would have some difficulty.

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  3. Valerianna18 April 2012 at 12:12

    Beautiful! In college I did a sociology project in northern Maine - went to the home of a micmac woman basket maker. She taught a friend and me how to make baskets from the tree to the finished basket. Loved it! I still have several that I made... I have FAR too many baskets, but I do use them for my commute to the studio, for bringing instruments out to the forest and many, many other things.

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  4. Rachel18 April 2012 at 15:32

    It's a lovely basket!

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  5. kaiteM18 April 2012 at 19:24

    a beautifully made basket, but sad that it means an old slow growing tree has to be cut down to make it.

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  6. Judy Martin18 April 2012 at 22:13

    I have two micmac ash baskets. One is an antique - maybe even 100 years old if you believe it. The other is only 5 years old - I purchased it at ten mile point trading post here on Manitoulin - a place that is an outlet for first nations both here and all over North America.

    You'll be able to visit it when you visit me. xx

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  7. Magpie's Mumblings24 April 2012 at 19:09

    Methinks the rusty pups are eyeing the basket with thoughts of it being a good storage place for their tossing balls.

    ReplyDelete

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