May
19
2008
 |
What an opportunity I had today, and in my own town of Taree. Weavers from Bula’bula Arts in Ramingining, central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory are here to teach basketry in a three day workshop. Clara Matandatpi and Marley Djangarri helped us to start weaving a basket.
Although the weaving technique is generally called coiling and twining, it is referred to as weaving here in Australia. The weaving is so expressive and beautiful that it moves me to tears. You can feel and visualise the land and country by its colouring, shapings and textures. Meeting the makers added to my appreciation of the great richness of cultural expression held within these containers. The Manning Regional Art Gallery is exhibiting the Bula’bula weavers work which consists of coiled baskets in many shapes and handle types, twined dilly bags, twined large mats and looped string bags. There are also sculptural animal images which are delightful and surprising.
There is nothing like seeing skilled hands creating this work. I have studied lots of basket beginnings but it was something of a revelation to see how to start a basket in the ‘buttonhole’ stitch which was quite different to any technique I had read about.
We started by preparing some fresh Pandanus then moved on to starting a coiled basket base with pre natural dyed and dried pandanus. The colours of the dyes really make the work distinctive. String bag looping was fascinating and we saw Clara spin the yarn for the bag on her thigh in the traditional method.My jeans weren’t conducive to this – sadly. (see Curiousweaver May 95 – PDF for instructions on thigh spinning)
Clara and Marley are Yolngu and their Ramingining community can be seen in the film Ten Canoes
|
 |
 |
 |
|
Jan
28
2007
|
The Mad Weave
|
Do you have to be mad to weave…I think so. This is an example of mad weave. Seems it is also called Malaccan weave and triaxial weave. Normally weaving has two elements – warp and weft. Tiaxial weave has an additional third element.
I started this basket with instructions from Shereen LaPlantz book "The Mad Weave Book". It is an authorised copy of her book sold by The Caning Shop. The illustrations are great and easy to follow, especially when you consider the complexity of the structure. It’s the sort of thing that is probably easy to show but not so easy to write.
Basically it is a twill weave of over one, under two, followed by a third weaver interlacing. It’s fun to do but I always seem to have trouble weaving things into container shapes. It’s a struggle and it can’t really be left incomplete. It insists on completion. It insists on patience and perserverence.
|
 |
| The struggle to become….a container |
Oct
11
2006
The Manning Regional Art Gallery has been hosting a contemporary Australian basket making exhibition called wovenforms. I attended the opening yesterday. What a visual feast to see this collection.
Fifty Eight basket makers contributed to the exhibition, mostly Indigenous makers with non-indigenous makers from a variety of cultural heritage.
To me this collection was a weavers kaleidoscope into Australian history to date, cultural development and aspirations. Indigenous weavers were identified in the catalogue by their group, whereas for non-indigenous weavers it was only where they lived. This strongly signified the differences in approaches. One works within a social context in a group, the other in a solitary, individual context. One is seeking to preserve what defines them, the other to promote what defines them. One emphasizes the value of functionality, the other conceptual non-function.
The top basket is by Mavis Ngallametta from Aurukun, west Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. The other two baskets are by Jill Nganjmirra from Mamadawerre, Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. I have detailed the exquisite handle finishes here and there is a whole world of information on handles alone. These have been refined by the makers for new uses and needs for the baskets. Disappointingly, yet predictably, some of the traditional items such as eel traps are now woven for the ‘art market’ and are not functional. They need to be made from a stonger fiber such as Lawyer vine to actually catch an eel.
Baskets are such a humble art from. Mostly not considered art, I think because of their extreme vulnerability. They are so transient – they remind us too much of our own transience.
