Melinda West | West Gardens Basketry

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

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UW Society of Ethnobiology

May 30, 2015 By Melinda

It was a beautiful day for the outdoor workshop 'Weaving With Invasives' held in the lovely Medicinal Herb Garden on Seattle's UW campus.  I'm grateful to the UW Society of Ethnobiolgy which hosted this event, and especially to Alex Harwell and Ashley Blazina. Along with organizing this event they made sure we had plenty of English ivy and Reed … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Students, Weaving from the Wild, Workshops Tagged With: English ivy, ethnobiology, ethnobotany, ivy, Small Plant Fiber Projects, spring, students, UW Society of Ethnobiology, Weaving with invasives

Weaving With Invasives

May 25, 2015 By Melinda

I’ll be teaching a free workshop in Seattle this Friday. Registration is required.<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-3471" src="https://www.melindawest.com/mwwp/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/image27-545x674.jpg" alt="image" width="545" height="674" … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Weaving from the Wild, Workshops Tagged With: English ivy, ethnobotany, ivy, Seattle, Small Plant Fiber Projects, UW campus, UW Society of Ethnobiology, Weaving with invasives

Wild Herb and Flower Basket

May 31, 2012 By Melinda

Wild Herb and Flower Basket

  Learn to make a twined basket using the 'weedy-vine' English ivy.  This vine, innocently introduced to the Pacific Northwest as a landscaping plant, has eagerly escaped the garden borders and is now choking out many of our remaining native forests.  Let's use this material, for its tenacious qualities also make it a great weaving … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Weaving from the Wild, Workshops Tagged With: class, English ivy, flowers, German Statis, herbs, ivy, Lavender, seasonal, stems, students, summer, twined, Weaving From the Wild and Garden Landscapes, Weaving with invasives, workshop

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About Melinda

Thirty 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. The experience of weaving with the materials at hand while being together with my sons on a beautiful Pacific Northwest shoreline, kindled a passion for creating art from natural plant materials. I thank my family, my community, and all my teachers for cultivating this gift in me.
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