Join us on Sunday, October 10th for Cattail Basketry for Beginners!

This class introduces students to a fantastic beginner basketry technique, twining using a readily available wild-growing plant material, cattail leaves. Students will learn how to harvest, dry, and prepare cattail leaves for weaving. They will then learn to weave a small basket on a mold and leave with a completed cattail basket. 

CLASS ITINERARY (3 hr class) 

• Introduce finished woven cattail projects, ice breaker & introduction - 10 minutes, while people arrive

• Walk by cattail patch, demonstrate harvest, show leaves in different states of preparation: fresh, dried, mellowed - 10 minutes

• Demonstrate fixing spokes to mold, followed by weaving time - 20 minutes

• Demonstrate twining - 10 minutes

• Open studio work with hands-on demos and instruction - 1 hrs

• Snack/stretch break (optional) - 10 minutes

• Demonstrate creating a wrapped border -  45 minutes

• Q&A - remaining time

SKILLS INTRODUCED

• Harvesting, drying, & preparing cattails for weaving

• Introduction to twining

• Weaving a twined basket on a mold

• Finishing a basket with a wrapped border

Sunday, October 10th

1am-4pm

$20 Suggested Donation

Meet the Instructor:

Renee is a Catskills-based chef and designer who specializes in working with wild plants and fungi. She rediscovered her childhood love for basketry when she was unhappy with the sourdough bread baskets she could buy and decided to make them herself instead. She works in many media, builds cob ovens, bakes bread and pastries, and obsesses over finding and eating wild mushrooms. You can see more of her work on Instagram @renee_makes_things.