Beautiful Multifiber Basket by Lynn Hoyt

Isn't this a wonderfully textural, unusual basket? I love it! I really enjoy the way all the colors interact with each other...and it makes me want to touch it, it looks so soft!

This basket was made by Lynn Hoyt, of Blount's Creek, NC, using a pottery base i made, and a technique i recently taught the Natural Fibers Group at a guild meeting. It is a very simple technique, and I love the depth and unique look it gives to baskets.

To make a multifiber basket like this, you can use yarn and prepared fibers, but the most fun thing to do is to prepare your own, using old clothes. I really love to use clothes that are beyond wearing, but have significance to me, as i talked about in this previous blogpost, Memories in a Basket. Lynn used this idea to prepare her childhood bedspread (blue and white) for incorporation into her memory basket. I think that goes very well with the theme of sun and starry skies, don't you? What a loving way to save a little scrap of her childhood. I understand she has another one in progress, using her sister's bedspread. aaaawww.

Also added for bulk and texture were yarn and prepared dyed sisal (yellowish.) Other worn clothing was dyed dark colors to add accent (black) to this great multifiber memory bowl! I also love how Lynn shaped her basket, she accentuated little twists I incorporated into the clay, and this helped to make an asymmetrical basket, with dips in the rim, very intriguing.

Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful basket with us, Lynn! Anyone else who has a basket made from a base they acquired from me, i would love to show them here! Check my MakeABasket.etsy.com shop for bases to make your own unique memory baskets!

to find more baskets made with these pottery bases, click on the label pottery base below
pamela

Memories in a Basket

Yesterday I blogged about making baskets from the old mini-blinds (which may have looked just fine, by the way, but they were drawn all over by my son!) Here is the promised blog about baskets from upcycled clothes.

This basket was coiled around a pottery base that i made. It includes some yarns and recycled bits of string, but also several of my husband's old shirts, a pair of kids' pjs, some camophlage jeans from my son, and a couple of socks that had holes in them. Yes, i said socks. They are great for bulk and texture. If you click on it and look closer maybe you can see some of them.
I love the way all the fibers come together and make a crazy quilt sort of effect.

This one is also embellished with beads. But sometimes, i embellish with buttons cut from the clothing, as in the bowl at right. This one is upcycled from an old long playing record album. I poked holes in the rim after distorting the album in my oven. After coiling with assorted recycled cloth strips, as well as yarns, i layered the buttons as embellishments. (click on any picture to see a large version.)

For more upcycled/recycled baskets, see my etsy shop. Some of them are coiled 'round recycled bits of plastic, as well! One is also twined using my husband's favorite old shirts, the yarn i showed you yesterday. Another has bits of sisal twine that have been unwound to make fringes. I would love to see what you have made of recycled materials!