10/08/2022
It was the worst of baskets, it was the best of baskets... I finally finished the handle on my carving tool basket this weekend and it's now in use. This is basket number five for me, and being made independently of a class it shows - poor material selection, bad design choices, rushed work and careless mistakes writ large in the weave, especially the border which went full free jazz. The couple of years since my last basket are showing.
The thing is, it's also probably the most functional basket I've made. It's sturdy and the shape and dimensions are exactly what I was after. It's also made from willow that we've been managing for for the last few seasons so I feel pretty connected to it materially.
I'll use it with this contradiction in mind. Just as most people do who make the everyday objects they need. Craft on the internet has become something to attain at and measure ourselves and others by - like climbing Everest - but for most of us we rarely need technical or aesthetic perfection, just utility and comfort.
I was talking with today about the intellectual struggle with being bad at something when you're getting started. I tell my students to embrace the badness and keep going. Well, I'm taking my own advice. I'm really looking forward to my next chance to weave, and to take my time and learn from the mistakes of this basket and make something better. That's not to say that bad is good enough for everything, but that adequate is okay sometimes. I'll probably never be an exceptional weaver, but I think I can make my peace with that and be an adequate weaver making baskets when I need them. This is what makes craft a fundamentally democratic activity.
