Melinda West | West Gardens Basketry

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

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More Pictures From NCI Art Retreat

October 2, 2012 By Melinda

Kathy Puts It All Together

I am a hunter-gatherer of plant materials and I use them for specific fiber technologies.  Because of the rarity of some materials, the time put into the gathering of others, and the painstaking preparation of most of the materials once gathered, I have developed the habit of saving my scraps.  When I met Sue Smith in the late 1980's early 1990's, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Artistic Uses of Plant Fibers, Students, Workshops Tagged With: armatures, cedar bark paper, creative, Creative Arts Retreat, Fall, mixed grass paper, North Cascades Institute, Northwest Landscape, Paper making, plant fibers, recycling materials, Sculptural Basketry and Paper Making, students, surface treatment

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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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