Around Easter 2023 I started to make a grapevine basket as I had trimmed my own grape plants earlier this year and had these beautiful, long pieces of grapevine and I thought that I should do something with them. I became aware of a seemingly endless supply of grapevines and began to harvest them and after viewing one tutorial video on making a grapevine basket I completed my first basket in time for Easter. Here is my accomplice, Jean Dickson, holding that basket. 

It was crude as I tortured the vines into form without doing much research and possessing no real skill in this area, but I was fascinated by the object when it was done and promptly began another. Eventually, information on making baskets began to seep into my process, and I learned a few more things from real basket makers making beautiful baskets. I have persevered in this endeavor as the therapeutic value of basket making is well documented, and I am now a confirmed basket case. I discovered that the pieces of vine that were too thick for basket making made really nice grapevine wreaths and so many of the smaller pieces could be woven into a wreath. However, I have become overrun with grapevine baskets and wreaths. 

Pearl, the cat, has given her seal of approval.

On the work bench, and everywhere…

The last basket wears a tag that I made after sending a basket out to be raffled off to benefit Parkside Lutheran Church. Here is a previous basket that was donated to the Stockton Library as part of their fund raiser. My sister-in-law Stephanie and brother Don filled it with goodies to be raffled.

These signs of approval were secondary gains as I continued to be obsessed with making these baskets and have churned out quite a few over the past 2 months or so.