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Joel Davis of Southington, Connecticut is a present board member Of Northeast Basketmakers Guild and an accomplished basketmaker. He specializes in miniature black ash woodsplint baskets, accurately executed to scale. He is shown here with a selection of his work both in miniature basketmaking and furniture making. It should be noted by the time I took Joel's picture the number of finished baskets had dwindled from the number he had started the afternoon with.

Eleanor Langlois of Springfield, Massachusetts acted as Event Coordinator for Northeast Basketmakers Guild members who participated in the event. Eleanor worked tirelessly to arrange the registration of guild participants and liaison with the museum staff. She also made certain that each participating basketmaker found a place to set up their tables and had access to everything they needed. Eleanor is shown here seated by her own basket display.

I spent several hours myself demonstrating black ash woodsplint basketry to a steady stream of visitors. The process of pounding the splint from the tree, the preparation of the splints, the use of a shave horse and drawknife and weaving on a basket mold were all covered.

There were many other guild members who had set up tables with baskets of all descriptions, old and new available for sale. There was also a nice selection of basketry patterns, books, tools and supplies. MaryJo Rushlow, guild president and other member volunteers manned a membership table and sold copies of the newly printed, professionally photographed, full color, oversized basketry calendar titled Baskets 2001. The guild is using the sale of this calendar as a major fund raiser for the year. Each of the photographs on the calendar is an award winning basket from the recent guild member exhibit. The calendar is a visual delight and is certain to be a collector's item.

The event turned out to be a lot of fun. My guess is that it was also a good deal for the vendors, many of whom were in the area for the Annual Summer Basket event of Northeast Basketmakers Guild that was held on the Sunday of the same weekend. This was the first time this event has been sponsored by the Hatheway House. With any luck, it might turn into a repeated event.

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All photos © 2000 Susi Nuss, All Rights Reserved

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