Here are some snapshots from my sixth wonderful basketry workshops with JoAnn Kelly Catsos we had here in St. Louis October, 2011. JoAnn taught two incredible baskets, both woven of brown ash (or black ash which it is also known by) which she and her husband Steve prepare themselves. We started out with a choice of Diamond Bowl and then finish with a choice of 4" or 6" captured lid cathead.

Diamond Bowls
and
Captured Lid Cathead

October 8-10, 2011

JoAnn Kelly Catsos shows the two options for the first basket, Black Diamond and Diamond Reflection.

JoAnn Kelly Catsos demonstrates laying out the base.

Tina starts on Diamond Reflections.

Pat starts on Black Diamond.

Everybody settles into following the pattern.

The bases are layed up loosely at first.

Lynanne has about gotten all of her uprights woven in.

Joanne works on a mini backpack.

Wanda works on Black Diamond.

Anne checks her work.

I have all of my uprights in place. Now it is time to start "shrinking the base".

As the uprights are packed closer together the pattern appears.

The uprights are packed tighter and tighter.

The uprights are as tight together as they can be.

Pat admires her work while Martha Kay finishes up.

JoAnn demonstrates pinning the base to the mold.

Cindy spaces the uprights evenly around the circumference.

Black Diamond pinned and banded, and ready to dry.

Martha Kay watches as JoAnn tappers the first weaver.

JoAnn makes it look easy.

Martha, demonstrates weaving around the corner.

Wanda scraps the tips of her weavers.

Weaving up the sides of Diamond Reflections.

Weaving up the sides of Black Diamonds.

The basket is leveled and the uprights folded over and clipped.

Each side of the base is a mirror image.

Joanne starts inserting the staves into her backpack.

Starting the lashing.

Pat lashes her basket.

Jeana starts her lashing as well.

Tina about has her basket lashed.

Barb lashes hers.

Just about to the end.

JoAnn demonstrates finishing off the lashing.

Last stitch.

My completed Diamond Reflections.

Ely makes his mom a woven bracelet.

Joanne is to the top of her mold.

Joanne added a double diamond twill to her pack.

JoAnn shows the baskets we will be weaving over the next day.

JoAnn shows how the lid is captured by the handle and rim.

JoAnn begins the morning going over the instructions.

JoAnn explains how to follow the pattern.

JoAnn demonstrates laying out out the lid.

JoAnn provides both a written and pictoral description for layint out the quadrafoil pattern.

Barb and Cindy start on their lids.

Cindy checks her work.

The spaces between the uprights is eavenly reduced.

The base is pinned to the mold of this 4" basket.

JoAnn demonstrates labeling the sides.

Grayson looks stressed by all this weaving.

With each row the corner uprights are gathered together a bit more.

The lids are starting to take shape.

JoAnn shows Pat where to leave a space for the handle to fit through.

Weaving in the false rim.

Lynanne checks out her nicely woven lid.

With the lids woven it is time to start on the body of the basket.

Martha Kay bands her basket to the mold.

Ann evenly spaces her uprights.

JoAnn takes a look at Wanda's progress.

A 4" basket body is almost woven.

A 6" is almost woven too.

JoAnn works on the second half of her lidded knife project.

Anne finishes weaving the last few rows.

Pat is up to the top of her mold.

Barb packs her basket.

A basket is left to rest over night.

Rita folds and clips her uprights to dry.

Ann trims her uprights while Jeana is aready lashing.

A 4" Cherub is left to rest for the night.

JoAnn helps Tina level her lid.

The rims are cable tied to the lid.

The lid is lashed first.

JoAnn demonstrates knotching the handle.

JoAnn helps Lynn get the rims on her basket.

A 4" ready for the body to be lashed.

Jeana works on lashing her 6" basket.

Tina lashes her 4" Cherub.

There isn't a lot of room for your hands in the little Cherub.

Pat proubly displays her completed 6" captured lid cathead.

JoAnn's birthday fell during the class, so of course we had to celebrate.

JoAnn did a good job blowing out all the candles.

Of course Joanne and I had to completely embarrass her.

I made a special project. A scaled version of a #9 captured lid fruit basket I had made years ago with Martha Wetherbee.

I am always the happiest when I am weaving.

I made a special lid mold jsut for this basket.

I wove the lid with extra fine weavers.

The quadrafoil pattern shows up nicely in contrast to the plain weave.

Almost woven to the edge. Time to work on the body.

The base is pinned and banded to the body mold.

Weaving up the sides.

Almost to the top!

After leveling the uprights are folded to the inside and dried.

Everything is trimmed.

The lid is woven and the uprights clipped to dry.

The big brother, the basket body and the lid.

The inside of the lid with the rim cable tied.

The lid fit to the basket.

The completed basket and the two molds used to weave it.

The original and the its new smaller brother.