Weaving with Palm Fronds

I am at it again. The Georgia Basket Association Conference is this weekend, Feb 3-5, at the Doubletree Inn in Roswell, GA.

After a move from Lehigh Acres to Leesburg, FL, I took a few months to get back into the groove of weaving. I learned to seatweave a chair and now am surrounded by seat weavers and lots of antique chairs.

I have been cutting, picking,and gathering weaving material. I also learned to weave palm fronds. I am using Cabbage Palm and Saw Palmetto Palm fronds. Thank goodness for my grandson, Kevin who is willing to poke around in the bush and help me find the right fronds. He also is a snake and lizard handler at age 11.

I find that the new leaf stalk pushing up out of the palm plant has whiter leaf blades and is so flexible to work with. The leaves feel like they are oozing lanolin.

I weave with the open palm fronds too. I learned that which ever way the frond will grow, will determine how the basket will turn out. Some will be tipped, angled like a flag or weave into a birdhouse on the center of the frond stalk. Hardly any frond grows true horizontal or vertical. I don't expect palm frond hats and bowls that can be made perfectly from a coconut frond to be the end result. I still wish I had a trained MONKEY to gather the tall palm fronds for me.

If I weave with dryer fronds (7-10 days old), there is less shrinkage of the final basket. I prefer to weave with the entire folded blade and not to split the leaf along the course center rib of each leaf. But I do like the look of a fresh woven basket since they seem to stay green longer.

I am on a quest now to find fronds from the Flame Thrower Palm from New Caldonia and New Zealand, which has a spectacular bright red leaflet that emerges from the dark green crown. I wonder if the basket would remain red?

I am selling weaving supplies at the show:
Philodendron sheaths large $8/dozen
Palm Inflorescence sticks long/ thick or thin weavers $10/50
Cabbage Palm Weavers bunch $6/from the new growth stalk
Cabbage Palm frond $6/ea
Palm Alligator Tail embellishment $1/ea
Elephant Ear Pods $1/4
Sweet Gum Balls $1/5

We are (Naomi, my sister) also taking Round Trivet with Cane kits, round 9 1/2" wooden trivet blanks, Cabbage Palm Wall baskets, Flantucket (Florida - Nantucket) baskets and HUGE Grapevine basket rims among other natural weavers.

More after I return from the show.

More collecting Pine needles

I have a small stash of the long plastic newspaper bags in my car. When I collect the pine needles, I slide them into the bag for the ride home. Nothing gets tangled, no 'critters' leap out of the needles and it keeps everything neat and tidy. Don't leave the needles in the bag, because they may mold if some were damp.

I also keep a plastic bucket, a pair of gloves and a good hardy pair of clippers for stubborn vines for collecting expeditions.

Collecting tips

It helps being a yard waste queen to find weavables, because I am always on the lookout for things to weave with. Friends don't like to ride with me because I am looking at trees and locations for philodendrons instead of the road.

The trick, I learned when I was collecting herbs for the herb farm was to look at the height that they grow when driving. With yard waste, you just have to look at the end of a driveway where they are thrown.

The palm inflorescence sticks work well when wet and pretty flexible. I was going to cut the spindly ends off, but they add to the work. It helps to have a heavy armature to work around, such as an old basket with a steel frame. Reed does work, but you must constantly be holding it down, with clamps, rubber bands and strong hands until the shape is set.

More Florida Baskets

I picked up smoke colored reed to blend in with the palm inflorscence sticks. Also, I have been working with the finer 'male' sticks to create a beginning of a birdnest.

FLORIDA BASKET

Finally, I am beginning to visualize and create the Florida Basket from palm inflorescence sticks. The only way other artists will be able to use the sticks are to think outside of the 'Easter Basket' box.

Palm sticks don't bend and weave like other medium. They must be soaked for a few hours to become flexible. The older the stick, the longer the soak.

I used a typical basket start with 3.25 reed. I had to form and mold the frame over a jar with rubber bands to hold everything in place. Since then I am am weaving the palm sticks around a metal, copper or a smoked reed armature.

Now my ideas are endless. On a 2 day trip to Orlando, FL; I spent time with my sisters and mother. Naomi and I gathered old palm sticks, sweet gum pods, and philo sheathes. They gave me their old bicycle. I rode the neighborhood checking out the booty. Now she is on the lookout too.She is a letter carrier and spots lots of yard waste during her day.

We also discovered we can copper plate/electroform the pods for jewelry and basket embellishments. I am going to need a bigger garage pretty soon.

Ft Myers ArtFest

Feb 5, 2011

I volunteered to work at the annual Ft Myers,FL ArtFest. The artist to watch is Jean Yao from Ft Lauderdale who weaves in palm inflorescences. She wouldn't allow me to photograph her wonderful art, as she prefers to sell at art shows instead of on-line. Too bad, we all would very enthusistic about her works.

Sheila King was in the show. Her baskets embellished with philodendron sheaths and wonderful natural findings were a hit.

Time out for winter in Florida

I have taken quite a rest in collecting my botanicals mostly due to the weather. Palm trees don't grow. Philodendrons don't flourish in 30 degree weather. Palm inflorescences that have been cut or fallen, haven't ripened enough to use. They rot.

The cold weather has stirred up the Gulf of Mexico and there has been more then usual the amount of dead shellfish, seaweed and detritus. Now if it wasn't so dastardly cold on the beach, I could do some real treasure hunting.

Hopefully February will bring an onslaught of new growth. I've kept 2 eggplants, a Fig, Mango, Jujube tree and a Passionfruit sheltered in the garage. I bring them out into the driveway on sunny days.

The 2011 season should be better then last year because I now know what to bring to basket conferences. I had to miss the Georgia Basket Conference because I just have no product to sell.

Looking to see my friends at future basket outings.

Bamboo

More scavenging along the roadside this last weekend. I scooped up some BIG bamboo and many smaller twigs for basketry. I dumped the haul on the driveway. My granddaughter just shook her head and walked back into the house. They see it all as kindling. How many times do you ever run across a pile of fresh cut golden Bamboo free for the taking? This is my passion, and I can't drive by. I layed in bed and thought about gathering more Bamboo today.

But I can see the smaller golden twigs as the frame work for great cane work, or maybe the top of a small table. Maybe I could make a trivet from the twigs and a nice caned weave for the body. What about the bamboo frame with palm inflorescence as the warp, and read or other fibers as the weft?

When I was cutting the branches off the PINDO PALM inflorescence, I noticed the fiber inside the branch was red and pulled out like a pithy fiber. I am planning to pound it to break up the fibers and add another color and texture to my inventory.

Website

http://www.botanicalbooty.com

The Website

It was a busy day because I added the website with price lists for the different weavables. I also was able to locate Babacu nut slices for basket embellishment.

I tracked down tagua nuts from Panama. I'll be taking Ashley & Julie to the beach tomorrow to scour the debris line at the beach. They think they are going swimming and shell collecting. But I am definately on a seabean hunt.

My 1st Seabean find

I had occasion to drive around Sanibel Island, FL on Thursday, 09/24/2010.  The island, lush as ever, peeked my interest for unusual botanicals. I had 1/2 hour to look and had to race back with plans to visit again soon. I'll bring my grandkids with me. Kevin likes poking through sea detritus as much as I do. He hunts for reptiles. I look for shells and seabeans.

I stopped along the causeway. I couldn't believe it. I poked through three or four bunches of debris washed up and found my first SEABEAN,  www.seabean.com It was a gray Nickernut  (sea pearl)  about the size of quarter.

Seabeans are seeds and nuts that make their way via the currents of our oceans and end up on far away beaches. The 15th Annual Sea-Bean Symposium will be held on Oct 22-23, 2010 at the Cocoa Beach Public Library in Cocoa Beach, FL. You can read about the seabeans in the Drifting Seed Newsletter
on-line.

Seabeans are more of the inventory as botanical booty.

Plants where I find the booty

It occurred to me that you may not know which plants to look at for weaving booty, so I set out to take a few pictures.

You can visit south FL many times, but not find the weavers because it simply is the wrong season, or the seeds haven't dropped off the branch. I scout these plants and mentally log them in for future reference. I watch for the landscapers to cut down the branches. It is just a passion of mine to BRAKE FOR YARD WASTE. I swear, I am going to have that painted on my van.

The giant Split Leaf Philodendron, or Monstera Deliciosa yields a leaf sheath that is leathery and flexible. I have plucked them from 6" - 14" long. Barring, spiders, snakes, fire ants and palmetto bugs, I get 'inside' of the huge plant and pull the dried spent leaf sheaths from the plant. Usually they fall to the ground as mulch. They don't crumble when fresh but may as they dry further.

I am experimenting with soaking several to flatten them for shipping, and see how they hold up once woven into a basket.

Collecting leaf sheathes

I was on a scavenger hunt today, collecting Split Leaf Phiodendron sheaths before the Lehigh Basketry Group meeting at the library.

I found small sheaths at the doctor's complex and very large leaf sheaths at the golf course condos. A lady yelled at me. She wanted to know what I was doing? I walked over to her to show her the leaf waste I had collected. I told her that I was teaching a class at the library and needed the leaves.

She said I could have all that trash I wanted, that lots of people rummage through their plants and actually cut or steal them. I have no intention other then to harvest the waste. I told her my name was Eve. She said, I could pick through all of the plants behind the condo too. It was a good day and another person who I educated  about yard waste.

Yard Waste Booty

Botanical booty is weaving treasures that come mostly from yard waste; palm frond cuttings, seed pod branches(inflorescences), grasses, vines, and leaf sheaths.

Some of the tresures come from rummaging through seaweed waste and things that wash ashore, such as seeds, shells, egg cases and driftwood.

I feel like a treasure hunter when I go on the search. I carry a small hand saw and extra sharp clippers along with a backpack for the booty.