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Title:
Hexagonal Weave Basket #66
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Category:
Art Piece
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Dimensions
(W x H x D):
10" x 6" x 6"
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Date Completed:
2004
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Hours Spent:
3
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Materials Used:
This is made from cotton paper,
acrylic
paint, waxed linen, and varnish.
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Special Techniques:
The artist paints on watercolor paper,
and then strips it with a pasta
machine.
The first layer is woven in a
traditional hexagonal weave; the
second
and third layers are interlaced
throu
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Description:
It’s an Oriental looking vase shape.
Base is woven with orange. Overlaying
strips are metallic and yellow.
Having
made over 60 hexagonal weave baskets
of
all shapes, Jackie stopped using this
technique. This basket was a class
sample, and it re-sparked the artist’s
interest in the possibilities of this
technique.
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Artist: Jackie Abrams
Jackie Abrams of Brattleboro, Vermont, is well
known for her paper weaving. Her introduction to
weaving began in 1975 when she apprenticed with
then 81-year-old white ash master basketmaker Ben
Higgins of Chesterfield, Massachusetts. Enjoying
the process, but frustrated by the lack of
workshop space required by this style of weaving,
she learned and applied simpler reed basketry as
taught by Ben’s wife, Gladys Higgins.
Jackie moved to rural Vermont and produced
hundreds of baskets made of commercial reed and
natural materials to sell at craft fairs and to
craft wholesalers. During this 13-year period she
was a member of the League of New Hampshire
Craftsmen and started The North Country Studio
Conference in Vermont.
For the next three years Jackie tried loom
weaving, creating architectural forms, making
paper and working with ribbons. Then in 1990, at
the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine,
in a class on surface design, Lisa Hunter used a
pasta maker to cut paper. As Jackie, said, “I was
off.” Here was a way to prepare paper for
weaving. Stating, “I love experimenting. I don’t
mind failures,” Jackie has created bias plaited
structures, cathead urns, hexagonal woven pieces,
layered and covered works, sculptural forms, wood
and paper geometric shapes, and organic forms
that include paper, fabric and colored earth. The
artist notes, “I am intrigued by the combinations
of materials and techniques, the layers in a
basket, and the painted surfaces that look like
stone or leather or ceramics. I am strongly
inspired by architecture, other cultures, and the
world around me. The challenge to keep exploring
satisfies my sense of creative wonder.”
Since 1990 Jackie has taught all over the United
States, in Canada, and in Australia at
conferences, at schools such as Arrowmont School
of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee, and at events
such as the Stowe Basketry Festival in Stowe,
Vermont. Inspired by artists she encountered on a
trip to Ghana, she is now helping local artists
there to support themselves by marketing their
work and teaching them marketing skills.
Jackie’s work has appeared in numerous books, in
art galleries such as the SOFA Gallery in
Chicago, and in national craft shows like the
Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington, D.C., the
American Craft Council Show in Baltimore,
Maryland, and the American Craft Exposition in
Evanston, Illinois. When asked about the
importance of weaving in her life, she said, “I
can’t imagine doing anything else.”
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Created in conjunction with Michigan State University and the
Association of Michigan Basketmakers © 2003
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