All locally gathered materials: bulrush, chestnut bark, morning glory, northwest sweetgrass [three square] cordage. I had to learn how to make the basket into a lamp, a friend taught me how to wire it.
Margaret Smith
Every 1 2024 / May 7, 2024
Impish Light
H: 8" | W: 7" | D: 7"
Photo by Richard Lipke
Margaret Smith
Vashon, WA
For the last 30 years Margaret Smith has been a basketmaker, inspired by Salish baskets seen in a museum. " It felt like my body was being plucked like a harp".
Her first teacher, Melany Berry, sent Margaret out to gather cattails to begin. That winter a storm felled a huge cedar tree right next to the road. They spent many hours extracting cedar bark with hammers and chisels, which was fine for a passionate beginner. Ideally cedar bark is pulled from a live tree when the sap is running. Her teachers have included: Anna Jefferson [Lummi], Richard Cultee [Skokomish], Karen Reed [Puyallup], June Ward [Makah], Holly Churchill [Haida}, Audrey Armstrong [Athabascan], Ed Carriere [Suquamish], JoAnn Hart, Jennifer Lee, Deb Curtis, Margaret Mathewson. Margaret's beautiful basketmaking workshop is located in the woods on Vashon Island. The baskets are crafted using locally gathered barks, roots, grasses, rushes, vines and lichen.