Melinda West | West Gardens Basketry

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

UW Society of Ethnobiology

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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...]

Weaving With Invasives

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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...]

Wild Herb and Flower Basket

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  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...]

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