Basket Cases
Locals and visitors are eager to join Judith's workshops, which she holds in her Ocracoke home each February. She started by offering one week of classes in 2008, and the project has grown to encompass the whole month.
“I’m doing this now so when I go into a rest home, I can test out and won’t have to,” said first-timer Bill Monticone, who was working on a very large laundry basket. He said he "chose to make something too big for my daughter to steal and take home on a plane.”
Large or small, each basket is unique and completely handmade.
All month Judith's house was filled with weavers and all their sundry supplies: bags and boxes of reed and grasses, books for inspiration, waxed thread, shells, bark, buckets of water, clamps and clips, cups of tea, and lots of tasty treats on the kitchen counter. Convivial conversation and laughter fill the room, and I wasn’t the only one who dropped by just to spy on all the great work going on. On my second visit, I was lucky enough to be there when Susan Stuck delivered a fresh-baked basket of pinenut-and-lemon biscotti. The weavers stopped working just long enough to enjoy the biscotti, and went right back at it. There were no idle hands.
Judith hosted three houseguests from Virginia the first week (all members of the Tidewater Basketry Guild), and others came from off the island for the winter workshop.
Melinda Sutton, Leslie Lanier, Karen Burgen, Teresa Adams, Paula Schramel, Susse Wright, Bill Monticone, Norma Sigal, Gloria Van Nostrand, and Lori Masaitis represented Ocracoke’s creativity with a fine showing of baskets of all shapes, sizes, and materials.
Susse made a laudry basket, but spent most of the week doing sculptural works – flying fish and a giant bittern.
Judith, Leslie, and Melinda will all be taking classes at the North Carolina Basket Convention in Durham in a few weeks. Leslie signed up for a class that involves bias plaiting, so she spent some time this week learning the bias technique so it wouldn’t be completely new to her.
Leslie and Melinda caught the basket-making bug from one of Judith’s earlier workshops.
“It’s addictive,” said Melinda as she added to her big cat-head basket. (“Melinda does cat-head better than anyone I know,” Judith told me.) The cat-head refers to the bottom of the basket; starting with a square pattern and working it into a round shape gives it legs that look like a cat’s ears.
Leslie was working on her 5th basket of the workshop. Already completed were two bias plait baskets, one small one made from local materials, and a big, ribbed basket with wooden handle. “I wanted to incorporate the wood,” she said. “And I built the basket around it.” Leslie says that they don’t work from plans, but Judith helps them figure out how to make what they want.
“It’s fun,” she said. “Except when it isn’t, like when I pulled this basket apart and started over."
“You’re not the only one who’s done that,” Judith calls from across the room. “Un-weaving builds character.”
“We are all steeped in character,” added Gloria, whose lovely market basket was worth the trouble to un-weave and get right.
Tom and Linda Smith came all the way from Mananssas, Va. They were longtime Ocracoke visitors before they started weaving, but now they are one their 2nd (Linda) and 4th (Tom) workshops with Judith. Linda brought a basket kit with her that she had tried at home, using its less than helpful directions. With some guidance from Judith, she was able to complete her beautiful basket while Tom made a unique egg basket, and several more. They love their weaving visits. “Judith is quite a teacher,” Tom said.
Judith and her husband, Chuck built their Ocracoke home in 1991, and spend as much time here as possible. In 2002, Judith retired from thirty years as an art teacher in the Norfolk public school system; Chuck still works as a CPA in Norfolk. During tax season, he's busy seven days a week, so it’s a good time for her to bring her basket supplies to Ocracoke.
Judith considers herself a “mixed media artist” – she uses traditional basketry techniques to create nontraditional forms that are often more sculptural than functional. She has developed a “beach basket” series that incorporates Ocracoke shells and beach combing treasures as part of the structure.
For Judith, the fun is in the sharing of ideas. “I learn something every year,” she said. “Everyone’s working on individual projects, and we get to see each other’s work. The ideas just flow.”
A basket open house is planned for Easter week at Books to Be Red, where the Ocracoke weavers will display their recent creations.
