Melinda West | West Gardens Basketry

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

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Plants Have Fibers – And Other Good Lessons

September 9, 2021 By Melinda

Thank you for looking at this blog. I haven’t been writing much this past year, for various reasons, but I hope to share more with you in the coming months. Last year was dedicated to working on some projects I’d started, but never seemed to have the time to finish, like the Suquamish-Indianola Storytelling Project. I learned that sometimes … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artistic Uses of Plant Fibers, Artwork, Community, News, Plants and Places, Upcoming Tagged With: Heronswood Garden, inclusions, Kara Horton-Wright, Michelle Berg, Paper making, paper making workshop, papermaking, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Sue Smith, The Basketry School, wood Hyacinth

Bare Bones Abstracts

January 28, 2021 By Melinda

Bare Bones One by Melinda West

Those of you who are weavers, that work with plant materials you grow and gather yourself, likely understand that building a fine basket takes a lot of time. Sometimes it’s freeing to allow oneself to do a type of work that isn’t about the perfection of the weaving, but instead is more about allowing beautiful materials to breath, to gesture, like … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artwork, Community, News Tagged With: Bare Bones, Curly Willow, Fig, hazelnut, inner cedar bark, willow, Yew

Cedar Bark – Useful and Beautiful

December 6, 2020 By Melinda

Cedar Yarn Basket by Melinda West

There is something quite amazing about the qualities of the inner bark of the Western Red Cedar. These qualities have been understood by the Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years. It means a lot to know that some people in todays easy shopping world, where a container for yarn is but one-click away on a computer or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artwork, Plants and Places

October 2020 London Craft Week at J&M Davidson

October 5, 2020 By Melinda

Lyons, Cedar By The Sea - A

It’s Fall now. The air is crisp in the shade all day, making the sun’s warmth, where found, ever more delicious. In any normal year, I’d be scrambling right now to finish all the half-made baskets and art experiments that I’d started but pushed to the side for other priority work and deadlines. That would always manage to fill the small gallery … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artwork, News, Upcoming Tagged With: Art in the Woods, J&M Davidson, London, London Craft Week, London Craft Week 2020, Meet the Maker, Sydni Sterling Studio, Sydni Sterling's Studio

2020 Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network Workshops

February 14, 2020 By Melinda

Cedar and Sweet Grass Basket by Polly Adams Sutton

Sadly all the workshops planned for 2020 were cancelled to reduce the spread of Covid-19 amongst our community. I’m leaving this blog up though, in case you want to get in contact with one of these amazing teachers in the future. Also, BARN now does have a number of classes they offer virtually, so it might be worth taking a look at their … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artwork, Community, News Tagged With: Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network, BARN, BARN workshops, Basketry Programs

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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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