Melinda West | West Gardens Basketry

Growing, gathering, and weaving with plant fibers from the Pacific Northwest

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Porch Papermaking With Food Plants – Cardoon and Kale

May 14, 2025 By Melinda

The days are getting longer. Exquisite scents of growing plants fill the air. The pollen makes me cry, but it’s all worth it! Today I’d like to introduce you to an easy to grow garden plant for making strong, flexible paper. Cardoon is a perennial culinary plant in the artichoke family, with stalks harvestable early spring through mid summer. When … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artwork, Community, News, Plants and Places, Resources, Upcoming Tagged With: Cardoon paper, Helen Hiebert, Kale paper, Lichen, May Babcock, papermaking, Porch papermaking, spring

Late Winter Papermaking – Mixing Siberian Iris Leaves and Lichens

March 24, 2025 By Melinda

On the menu for papermaking - as late winter wind storms loosen lichens from the trees, dropping them all over the trails I walk along, I recognize this gift from the canopy above. On each walk I collect a pocketful of the beautiful lichens just so I can study their interesting structures more closely. But I also know from past experience that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artistic Uses of Plant Fibers, Artwork, Community, News, Plants and Places, Upcoming Tagged With: okra, papermaking, Siberian iris

More Spring Porch Papermaking – With Ivy Leaves

March 17, 2025 By Melinda

We’ve lived on the Kitsap Peninsula for 45 years now. When we moved here from Seattle, this land on traditional Suquamish territory was zoned rural, and the timber company Pope, owned vast swathes of land where it clear-cut the timber, and replanted mostly mono-cultures of Douglas Fir. Over the years, Pope morphed into Olympic Resources, converting … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artwork, Community, News, Plants and Places, Upcoming Tagged With: abaca, Basketry School, cockling, cotton linter, couching, English ivy, forest, formation aid, hand-made paper, ivy, lamination, Michelle Berg, Ocra, press, pulp, restrained, Ribbed Baskets, screen molds, slurry, Sue Smith

Here’s What’s Cooking – Porch Paper Making

February 19, 2025 By Melinda

Hi Friends. I haven’t forgotten you are out there. In the midst of current affairs it is important to know there way more wonderful humans, like you, who are doing their best to be good citizens, good neighbors, good people, and to live creative and purposeful lives. Against the darkness of our political times, there are many examples of people … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artistic Uses of Plant Fibers, Artwork, Community, My Teachers, News, Plants and Places, Resources, Upcoming Tagged With: abaca, additives, cellulose, cotton linter, embroidery hoops, fiber, Helen Hiebert, leaves, Paper making, papermaking, screen molds, Sword Fern, The Papermaker’s Companion, winter, winter work

Grateful for a Community That Supports Local Artists

November 14, 2024 By Melinda

On the second weekend each November, Cultural Arts Foundation Northwest presents the Art in the Woods Studio Tour. Many talented artists who mostly work in isolation throughout the year come out of the “woods” to share their work. The studios are open Friday through Sunday from 10-5 each day. This is a fun event for those who like to see art, be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artwork, Community, My Teachers, News, Upcoming Tagged With: AIW, Art in the Woods, Art in the Woods Studio Tour, Art in the Woods Studio Tour 2024, Art sale, community, community support, Cultural Arts Foundation NW, Sydni Sterling, Sydni Sterling painter, Sydni Sterling Studio, Sydni Sterling's Studio, Veterans Day Weekend

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Recent Posts

  • Local History – Interview With Barbara Ann Lawrence – Suquamish Tribal Cultural Teacher and Storyteller
  • Porch Papermaking With Food Plants – Cardoon and Kale
  • Paper from the Ditch – Weathered Reed Canary Grass
  • Late Winter Papermaking – Mixing Siberian Iris Leaves and Lichens
  • More Spring Porch Papermaking – With Ivy Leaves

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About Melinda

Forty years ago, while sitting on the beach playing with my young children, I made my first basket out of a pile of willow trimmings someone had tossed there. It looked wildly made like a crazy bird’s nest. While being together with my two sons on a beautiful Pacific Northwest shoreline, this simple experience of crafting with the natural materials at hand kindled a passion for creating forms using plant fibers. I thank my family, my community, and all my teachers for cultivating this gift in me.
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