Rattan: Supply Down, Prices Up…
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Global economic forces have created a worldwide shortage of rattan, pushing prices ever higher. Wholesale prices have doubled in the United States. That increase, combined with higher shipping costs, has shown up in higher prices for all reed and some smaller sizes are being rationed by retailers.
Jeremy Frey Wins Top Prize
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Jeremy Frey, a Passamaquoddy basketweaver in Maine, recently won Best of Show at the Sante Fe Indian Art Market. He comes from a long line of native weavers. He specializes in ash fancy baskets, a traditional form of Wabanaki weaving. His work has been featured in the Changing Hands exhibit at the Museum of Art …
All Things Considered VII
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The exhibition coincided with the NBO conference Tradition and Innovation, October 8-13, 2013. A second venue for the exhibition was held at Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA, November 23, 2013-February 23, 2014. The show featured benchmarks in excellence in traditional and sculptural basketry that demonstrate superior technique, and original concept and design. This traveling …
Warazan ~ Knotted & Woven Characters from Japan’s Ryukyu Islands
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For many years, the population of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands noted numerical values, calculation results, enumerations, and more with knotted cords from rice straw. Even after World War II, fishermen, moneylenders and simple merchant were observed working with these cords of rice straw. Warazan were used as a simple calculation tool for adding, subtracting, multiplying but also to generate invoices and supporting documents. Laborers recorded …
Basket Reed: Where It Comes From, How It’s Produced
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There are between 550 and 600 species of rattan, which can be found in rainforest areas from South China to Australia and Fiji to West Africa and Madagascar. Basket reed is produced from the core of this thorny palm (mostly genera Calamus, Daemonorops or Plectomia) which grows like a vine into the forest canopy. Rattan …
NBO member Aaron Yakim is awarded $50,000 USA Fellowship
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USA Fellowships were launched by United States Artists (USA), the national grant-making and advocacy organization, with generous support from the Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential, and Rasmuson Foundations. They state, “Our mission is to invest in America’s finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society. We believe that imagination and the will to express it …
A Glass Act: The Alchemy and Allure of Markow & Norris
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Since their debut in 2003, the enigmatic duo of Markow & Norris have taken the art world by storm with their revolutionary woven glass sculptures that continue to astonish gallerists and art critics alike.
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