Donna Crispin Weaves New Baskets from Old and Natural Materials

We were saddened to hear the news of Donna’s passing on February 5, 2019. Our condolences to her family and friends.

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Seaweed on the beach, cattails in a ditch, grapevines on a trellis, bark on a birch tree — it’s all ancient art waiting to happen for longtime basket weaver Donna Crispin of Eugene, Oregon.

With a BLM permit, she may pull bark off a cedar tree — sustainably, of course — and weave it into a brownish red hat. She turns cattail leaves into a cooking apron, and blends twigs from red osier dogwood and willows into a random-weave basket with brown and cream tones. Even after 29 years of weaving, she never tires of creating baskets and art from natural materials.

“There’s always something new to learn,” Crispin says. “It seems there are new techniques I haven’t discovered yet, a different rim or a different start.

Read more here at the Register-Guard newspaper.