I create sculptural baskets made of inner bark, wood splints or grasses with soothing, organic shapes and sturdy walls of weaving.
I have always felt, since that first basket, that the reason that I love to make them is the magic that happens within me when the rhythm of the stroke is felt. It is like an Indian mantra; to repeat in your head what your hands must do, “Over one and under one.” It is intriguing to imagine how to construct a form, solve the technical problems and achieve the basket that I have seen in my mind.
During the 49 years that I’ve been weaving baskets, I have explored many different techniques and materials. For many years, I have twined sculptural forms using inner American elm bark for spokes and weavers. For my current pieces, I am growing and harvesting fragrant sweetgrass. The sweetgrass becomes the foundation material in sculptural, coiled basket forms. These forms begin with a turned wooden burl bowl and the sweetgrass is attached to the bowl, and itself, with waxed linen.
My work has been influenced by the natural world around me, a reverence for Native American and traditional baskets and an intense desire to produce an ordered object that I know may or may not be functional.
Sometimes, it is hard for people to see an object as a basket when it loses functionality. My baskets are containers of the space they surround and the spirits within.
You can find Dianne on instagram @diannestanton3