Product Description

This profusely illustrated third edition of an authoritative classic relates the history and geography of baskets, including everything from seed-gathering baskets to portable stalls used by street vendors, huge “skeps” for sorting wool, and one-person boats. The author also provides detailed advice on basket design, materials, techniques, care, and repair, and gives step-by-step instructions for making an array of baskets, including a tall oval shopping basket, wastepaper basket, lidded picnic basket, all-purpose plate, wine cradle, fruit bowl, cane rattle, carpet beater, and more—made with a wide range of materials including willow, cane, rush, raffia, straw, grasses, palms, and coppice woods, and by a variety of techniques, including stake-and-strand (wickering), framing or ribbing, coiling, plaiting, and twining. Craftspeople, collectors, students of traditional crafts, and general readers will find themselves fascinated by this authoritative survey. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. 294 illustrations, including 12 in color on the covers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #981910 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

Focuses on 'wicker' baskets almost exclusively
Despite the title of "Complete Book of Basketry," this book actually only covers what I would call wicker baskets, those made with a weave of strong wood fibers and solid wood components. Adequate histories of those baskets are given, as well as some nice DIY designs. She also covers, although not in depth, popular Native American baskets but VERY LITTLE is said about baskets other than those found in the US.

There also is a strong focus on what she categorizes as Appalachian baskets.

I was looking, however, primarily for information about the world-famous baskets made by blacks/African-Americans in the Charleston, SC, area, commonly called Sweetgrass/Gullah baskets. Wright allots only one paragraph and no illustrations to this huge and popular subject, and uses the word "negro," perhaps reflective of the book's initial 1977 copywright.