Pine needle baskets

Pine needle basket in progress. Photo by Ken Fenter

One of the things I love about our home in Bend is the three old Ponderosa Pine trees that grow in our yard. Forget about the needles and cones they drop in the gutters and drive way year around. The squirrels and birds and the sound of the breezes and the smell of the turpentine makes it all worthwhile. From the start I've wanted to learn how to make a pine needle basket. Each year as we visit the vendors at the outdoor craft shows here in Bend and in Sisters 20 miles away there will be at least one artist patiently weaving beautiful works of art out of the six to nine inch long needles of our local pines.

Almost every term Jean Stark of Sisters teaches a lucky dozen students how to do it. I started trying to get into one of her classes almost as soon as I learned about them, only to find that one had to get on the phone almost immediately when the catalog came out. Finally I was lucky enough to get into her class a year ago and struggled through the day. Ironically at that time I was editing the manuscript of the Ruin and about in the spot where my main character was weaving baskets to store food for the winter. In Jean's class she fills those quiet periods when all the participants are working and the conversation lulls with information about how the Native Americans used their baskets and how making a pine needle basket is similar to making baskets out of grasses or bark or other plant fibers.

Trying to make a basket that Saturday gave a whole new perspective into what my character faced learning to make containers with nothing but a crude sketch to guide him.

Jean is a wonderful teacher and highly accomplished artist and the second attempt was even more fun than the first attempt. I got a little further this time. Maybe even far enough to attempt making one on my own. Maybe I'll have another photo one day.

Respectfully,

Kenneth Fenter