Basketry: A World Guide to Traditional Techniques

by Bryan Sentance

"Fascinating and much-needed...the first to cover this wide, surprisingly colorful realm in its entirety."— San Diego Union Tribune

Navajo wedding baskets and Apache water baskets; sweetgrass and black ash splint baskets from New York State; rattan hanging baskets from Bangladesh; lacquered picnic baskets from China; Berber baskets from Morocco; Zulu coiled pots; rope rim baskets from France; birch bark strips from Finland; willow frame baskets from Wales; horsehair from Chile; plaited yucca from Mexico...

While basketmaking as a living art and craft has an extensive modern literature, this is the first book to provide a worldwide survey. The book covers over eighty richly illustrated
• materials—from bamboo and bark to palms, grasses, and synthetic fibers;
• techniques—from twining and plaiting to coiling, linking, and looping;
• decoration—from natural dyes to embroidery and embellishment;
• everyday basketry—from cradles to fishing creels;
• wider applications—from art to hats, architecture to transport.

Complete with advice on collecting, a glossary, and information on where to see baskets, this survey will be essential for anyone concerned with craft, decorative objects, and interior design. 833 illustrations, 697 in color.

Genres: Crafts, Nonfiction, Art

216 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2007

Reviews

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of different baskets from around the world. No instruction on how to make them.

[aldo zirsov · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book of baskets/basketry photos, but frustrating to try to use as a refernece, as I just rediscovered this morning. One of the chapter-head index thumbnails is a mat that is probably Dayak (Borneo). The same mat appears opposite the title page, labelled as "Baskets from around the world" [!!]. Well, mine is in storage, but you get the idea -- I never did find it, but I did see lots of really good pix of really good baskets from around the world.

So -- enjoy the basketry eye-candy, but don't plan on making a lot of IDs, OK?