Willow Basket Workshop-The Spiral Weave

Name: Willow Basket Workshop-The Spiral Weave
Start: 2025-04-06T09:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-04-06T15:00:00-05:00
Location: DeSoto State Park~Fort Payne, Alabama

Schedule

Sun Apr 06 2025 at 09:00 am to 03:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

DeSoto State Park~Fort Payne, Alabama | Valley Head, AL

Serious Skills Series: Willow Basket Workshop-The Spiral Weave
Hosted by DeSoto State Park & Little River Arts Council .
The Serious Skills series is a variety of classes and workshops that provide opportunities to discover a hidden talent or learn a new skill for personal enrichment. Classes are open to local residents, overnight guests and park visitors.
Learn to weave with willow! Whether you're new to basket-making or seeking to expand your skills, this workshop offers the perfect opportunity to create functional art with natural materials. No prior experience necessary! The instructor will also be sharing some of her personal journey of healing through foraging and handcrafts.
About the class: This class is for total beginners as well as seasoned basket makers unfamiliar with the spiral weave technique. Participants will first make a napkin ring (for practice) and then a 7.5'' x 4.5'' willow basket and a 9'' x 4'' willow basket (approximately) using the spiral weave technique.
This class will cover:
- some basics of willow basketry
- wild vs. cultivated willows
- when, where, and how to harvest and source willow for basketry
- preparing willow for weaving
- the spiral weave basketry technique
Date: Sunday, April 6, 2025
Time: 9:00-3:00 p.m. (CST)
Where: DeSoto State Park in Fort Payne, Alabama.
Fee: $100-includes all supplies. Class space is limited , pre-registration is required for attendance. 2 scholarship spots are available to people of the global majority (PGM) and those who have been displaced by Hurricane Helene.

Pre-registration: https://www.littleriverartscouncil.org/spiralbasket.html

Please note: This class requires average-moderate hand strength and may not be a good fit for those with hand sensitivities including hand injuries and arthritis.
About the Instructor: Frea (pronounced FREE-yuh; she/her) is the founder and craftswoman behind Wild Earth Crafts, an initiative that helps creative folks, educators, homesteaders, and lovers-of-the-outdoors learn to use materials from their own backyard to create beautiful and useful home goods. Through Wild Earth Crafts, Frea has been enthusiastically helping connect folks more deeply with the natural world so that we can weave ourselves back into the wild, back into deeper connection with the land we live upon. She lives to forage for and make beauty with various fruits, seeds, nuts, grasses, vines, and sticks while sharing these joys with others. Originally from the Bulbancha area (colonially called greater New Orleans), she currently resides with her two children in the mountains on ᏣᎳᎫᏪᏘᏱ Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East), S’atsoyaha (Yuchi), and Miccosukee land - colonially called Western North Carolina.