Sandi McNeil is getting her rocks in a row to choose the perfect base for her wire trees. If you want to see what they look like with a tree wrapped around them, visit her page on our site at https://victoriacountystudiotour.com/sandi-mcneil/ She, Carol Nichol and Janet McDougall welcome you to their studio.
This past winter I had a most unfortunate experience while dog-sledding. While on a rest break, my dogs reacted to a red squirrel and before I could find my brake, I found a small tree. After a very brief, violent encounter with the tree, both my hands and wrists were mangled, bruised and bleeding. After a visit to Minden Hospital, I came home with ten stitches across the back of my left hand. My right hand escaped stitches but was cut and bruised. I looked like I had Frankenstein hands! This was not good. I need my hands for basket weaving!
Sandi with Dogwood
I cut and gather and process natural materials all year round so that I can leisurely weave baskets as the snow flies and the wood stove burns. Now I wasn’t able to use my hands, so there was no basket weaving happening for a month and a half! Not to mention, no more dog sledding or cross country skiing.
Once I could use my hands again, the pressure was on to race against Mother Nature. I use fresh dogwood and willow, and the warming spring temperatures were quickly closing my window of time before pussy willows and leaves would start to emerge.
Forget about the leisurely weaving! Now I was weaving baskets as quickly as I could, all day long, and Mother Nature was cooperating, keeping the temperatures cool enough that my dogwood and willow were not drying out. As long as I had fresh materials, I could continue weaving. The last few baskets I made actually had willow that was trying to sprout their flowers.
Dog Sled Team
The baskets I make in the winter represents my stock for the rest of the year so I was happy that my season was extended with a cold wintery spring! My right hand has fully recovered and my left hand bears the scar of impact and I will probably always have a wonky ring finger. But I can still weave baskets. Of course I’m not very fond of red squirrels anymore and I will be wiser when I resume dog-sledding next winter.
Spring is always a busy time of year, and in my basket weaving life it is even busier! All winter long I gather willow and vines, and soak many, many yards of bark, before happily constructing a large variety of spoked baskets. Once Spring arrives, I start to notice changes in the materials that I gather and use all winter. The willows sport pussy willows, quickly followed by leaves. The dogwood loses its lovely red colour, and the outside temperature starts getting pleasantly warmer. These are all signs that its time to put my basket weaving on hold and start to plan my once yearly, cedar bark gathering.
The arrival of spring means that it is time for me to refocus, and put my energy and time into replenishing my stock of cedar bark. Cedar bark can only be gathered during a short window of time anywhere from late April to late May. During this time, the sap is running in the bark, but it is not yet sticky. Sticky bark is hard to peel and separate, and who wants a sticky basket? This window of time is dependent on the warming temperatures of spring, so every year it is a guessing game to determine when to start peeling.
peeled bark
This year I have plans to make some trails on my property suitable for dog-sledding, and several cedars are in the way. If I don’t cut them down this spring and harvest the bark, those trees will be knocked down later this summer, and by then the bark will no longer be useful for basket making. So, I have been very busy cutting down and peeling cedar trees. This year I have the luxury of more time to spend gathering bark. I have been able to peel the bark from the tree and then immediately remove the outer bark from the inner bark while the bark is still moist and flexible. The outer bark is not useful, but the inner bark is well worth the time spent to gather and process it. Cedar bark peels off the tree in a lengthwise direction. When first peeled, the inner bark is a creamy white colour and feels wet and slippery, but not sticky. I remove the outer bark and coil each strip of inner bark and tuck in the ends to contain the coil. I then bundle the coils together and hang the bundle to dry in my studio. As it slowly dries out, the bark turns a golden honey colour, and becomes stiff and inflexible. In this state it can be stored in my studio for many years until I’m ready to use it.
