The original thread is almost 10 years old.

"The original thread is almost 10 years old."

And still absolutely true.

Basket making is like surgery.

You don't pay a surgeon for the time it takes her to slice and stitch; you pay for the years of education that prepare her to slice and stitch.

We own some sweet grass baskets that are still a pleasure after 25 years.

I took a Nantucket basket course one summer. I worked all day on my little basket. At the end of the day, my fingers were cut and scratched and ached from the use of unaccustomed muscles. The basket was terrible.

I took it home and put it on the shelf.

Overnight, I decided to take it back tear it down and do it over again. I was worried that the teacher would want me to pay for another [not inexpensive] class, but when I told him that I wanted to remake the basket, he said, "I would have thought the worse of you if you hadn't."

It is still not a good basket, much less a great one, but it is not a terrible basket.

I am glad that so many of you appreciate the art.

Good article. I think I am surprised by the number of weavers they say there are--and glad.

How can you tell?
This quote--imitations are painfully deceiving,” Joyce Coakley, a sweetgrass basket-maker, author and historian, told the newspaper in an e-mail last week.