Basket Circle & Potluck at Dimond Park!

It’s that time of year again!!!  Please join the Speculative Commoning Artist Collaborative (SCAC) for a Basket Circle and Potluck at  Dimond Park! It’s going to be a super sweet fun day of weaving in the park and hanging out with awesome people and sharing yummy food!

Where? The long tables by the big oak/ playground in Dimond Park

When? Sunday November 15 10am-4pm

*Basket circles are part of SCAC’s ongoing project that we call the Sausal Creek Ivy League Please follow the link to learn more about this project and what it’s all about!

What will we be weaving?

We will be supporting folks in making this small circle basket out of english ivy that you harvested! (click the link to see the instructions PDF)

What should I do to prepare?

HARVEST!

We are assuming that if you are coming to a basket circle you’ve probably already come to a harvest day and have gotten an introduction to harvesting, selecting, splitting, and drying ivy for weaving. **For the basket circles we do not provide ivy, so please make sure that you have harvested and dried enough ivy to make the basket we’ll be teaching. (details below, questions welcome )

If you haven’t come to a harvest day yet (or if you have) … come to a harvest day! We’ll show you all that stuff if you don’t already know!

For this basket you will need to have harvested and dried:

6 split or unsplit pieces of ivy 35 inches long

6 split or unsplit pieces of ivy 20 inches long

(all these pieces should be similar in thickness to each other (about ¼” or the approximate width of a pencil) and pliable enough to wrap around your hand.)

AND  About 65ft of split ivy weavers pliable enough to wrap around your finger. (weaver vines should also be similar in thickness to each other and about the width of a pencil, for the weaver vines it’s good to err on the side of slightly thinner than a pencil)

How do I know if my ivy is dry enough?

Try to bend the tip end of one of your split vine bundles. If it snaps when you do this, then it is dry enough. This can take one to two weeks depending on temperature and moisture conditions.

How will we weave with dry ivy?

You won’t! We will have a big pot of hot water on site and folks can soak their dry ivy in the water just long enough to get it pliable enough to weave with. (5-10ish minutes depending on how thick the material is) Drying the ivy first and then soaking ensures that you will have a nice sturdy basket that’s not all loosey goosey!

What else should I bring?

–One towel

– Water to drink!

–If you have a pair of sharp scissors and/or garden clippers, or a bodkin/awl that would be great! But we do have some tools for sharing.

–if you have the capacity, please bring something to share for the potluck!

*** If you want to be able to start and finish your basket at this gathering please arrive on time at 10am. It’s also much easier if we all start together 🙂

You can also bring any other weaving project you’d like to work on in community with other folks. We will have tools folks can use, books to look at and experience to share!

If you don’t want to weave or you don’t have enough material yet and still want to hang out, please do!

If you have any questions about this event, the basket, how to harvest etc please don’t hesitate to email us!

There’s no sign up or registration or anything like that, but if you do plan to come please send us an email to let us know. It’s helpful just to have a ballpark sense of how many folks plan to attend