Melinda West | West Gardens Basketry

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

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Sharing a Cultural Art Experience Through Film

June 22, 2011 By Melinda

Cedar Necklaces

Over the past thirty years, it has been a great honor for me to be a witness to what could be called a cultural revival, renewal, or renaissance, within the local Puget Sound First Peoples communities where I live.   I've directly benefited from this rebirth of cultural and ecological knowledge and the ways of thinking about learning and being an … [Read more...]

Filed Under: My Teachers, Students, Weaving Nature, Workshops Tagged With: 15 minute film, 1st grade, 2nd grade, Clam Basket A Story By Ed Carriere, cultural art film short film, cultural art story, Ed Carriere, film, Joanne Ardinger, Katie Jennings, Kevin Michael Martin, primary resource, Suquamish Basket Marsh, Suquamish Elementary School

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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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Melinda West and basket, Indianola WA

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