THIS STEP-BY-STEP PICTORIAL REFERENCE GUIDE COVERS ALL of the techniques you will need to begin making both traditional and modern Nantucket Baskets. Relying on almost 42 years combined experience in weaving baskets, the authors convey hundreds of tips and methods (that they learned the hard way!), and truly provide you with the "Nuts and Bolts of Nantucket Basket Weaving". Over 250 photos and illustrations will give you the confidence to start making these time-honored masterpieces yourself. Topics covered in this book include: Designing your Nantucket basket, Materials, Weaving with Cane & Hardwood, Working with Bases, Rims & Handles, Completing your Nantucket Basket and Applying the Perfect Finish. Whether you are a beginning weaver who wants to get started, or an experienced weaver who wants to advance your skills, this book is for you.
American Baskets is the first book to offer a comprehensive overview of an art form that is ten thousand years old. Basketmaking is the most basic of all crafts in its methods and material, and its development reflects specifically local traditions. Here, author Robert Shaw ("the information source on major U.S. crafts" -- "Booklist) examines the craft's history and artistry throughout the country and through various periods. Once among the most common of household objects, handmade baskets have a cachet that has never been equaled. Despite the fact that the American artisan basket has all but disappeared from daily use (the baskets that we have in our homes today are either made from synthetic materials, often by machine, or imported from overseas where labor is cheap), the genuine example of a handcrafted basket is highly prized as a beautiful and valuable object. Baskets are fixtures in the popular style of country decorating, and collectors search out fine antiques as well as outstanding contemporary basket creations. American Baskets celebrates the treasures of yesterday while exploring the work of many of the fine artists who labor over the art form today. Beautifully photographed and exhaustively researched, American Baskets analyzes the influences of both Native Americans and early settlers, including the Aleuts and Hopi as well as the Quakers and Pennsylvania Dutch. The significant contributions of early African-American East Coast culture and the rich heritage of rural Appalachia are also discussed. Paying special attention to the collectible aspect of the American basket, Robert Shaw investigates every type of basket indigenous to this country: ash splint farmbaskets, rattan "lightship" baskets, rye straw baskets, African-American rush baskets, and more. A resource guide listing museums that house basket exhibits, antiques dealers and auction houses that sell high-quality pieces, and traditional basket artisans and organizations completes the elegant package.
There is nothing like the satisfaction of owning a beautiful handmade basket. They brighten any room, are useful around any home, and make cherished heirloom gifts. This magnificent collection of over 30 baskets draws on the long, rich tradition of basketmaking and uses a variety of fascinating techniques and easy-to-find materials. In a matter of hours, you can proudly produce a handsome basket that will be admired for generations to come. You'll appreciate the step-by-step instructions, including over 400 illustrations, colorful full-page photos and helpful hints and suggestions. Gorgeous watercolors of baskets are interspersed throughout, making this book as beautiful as it is useful. Book jacket.
It all begins when Comet walks away from the lighthouse close to his birthplace on Nantucket Island. He visits a garden, a bookstore, a boat, and a party, and at each place he gets into trouble and loses one of his lives. Comet starts to worry. He longs for a home, a place where he’ll be safe. Will he find one before he uses up all nine lives?
From the bestselling author of Between Husbands and Friends and An Act of Love comes a wise, wonderful, and delightfully witty “coming of age” novel about four intrepid women who discover themselves as they were truly meant to be: passionate, alive, and ready to face the best years of their lives. Meet Faye, Marilyn, Alice, and Shirley. Four women with skills, smarts, and secrets—all feeling over the hill and out of the race. But in a moment of delicious serendipity, they meet and realize they share more than raging hormones and lost dreams. Now as the Hot Flash Club, where the topics of motherhood, sex, and men are discussed with double servings of chocolate cake, they vow to help each other . . . and themselves. Faye, the artist. A determinedly cheerful widow and connoisseur of control-top pantyhose, she’s struggling with creative block and an empty, lonely house. Now she’s got a tricky problem to bring to the club’s table: how can they catch her perfect son-in-law cheating on her only daughter Laura? Shirley, the healer. Though her yoga-slender body belie her years, decades of dating losers and the strain of being broke make her feel her age. Shirley has a secret dream: a wellness spa that nurtures body and soul. But first she needs to believe in herself, in her abilities, and in her friends at the club. Marilyn, the brain. A paleontologist who has spent so many years looking at dried-up fossils, she’s almost become one herself. Worried that her brilliant but nerdy son is about to marry the very wrong woman, she gets some help from the HFC, who transform her from a caterpillar to a butterfly, with amazing results. Alice, the executive. Black and regal, she soared to the top of the corporate ladder. Now her shoes are murder on her arthritic back and the younger jackals are circling in for the kill. But as the inspiration behind the HFC, she’s about to discover something extraordinary: contentment. For Faye, Shirley, Marilyn, and Alice, the time has come to use it or lose it—be it their bodies, their brains, their spirits, and their sense of fun. Together they realize that they can have it all, perhaps for the first time in their lives. And though what sags may never rise again, feeling sexy has no expiration date— and best of all, with a little help from her friends, a woman can always start over . . . and never, ever, give up what matters most.
