About Our Baskets

It all starts with rain water...

Marlene Hassel puts out rain barrels and collects the rainwater from her roof. She uses the rainwater to dye all fibers used in making her baskets. Marlene's baskets are found exclusively at Westwind Potters.

DYE: We hand dye the reed with Procion; a fade-resistant dye. The reed goes in the dye pot with 95° water for 12 hours. Then it is activated for another 12 hours to set the dye. Rinsing the next day does have it's surprises, as the dye is very sensitive to temperature changes.

MATERIALS: We stress for the highest quality reed, which comes from the core if rattan, a vine-like plant that grows on Indonesia. The wild grapevine is plentiful on our property in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Tugged live from trees, the vines are then peeled and shaped into handles for egg or key baskets, or rims for potato baskets. We try to let the vines "cure" for 30 days before using them. The sea grass in all natural; a grass, hand twisted into a cord, greenish or brownish in color. It comes in sizes from mini to very large. Experiments are on-going  with "natural" materials: date palm, pink palm, coconut hair, jute, sisal, philodendron leaves, iris and gladiolus leaves, bamboo, cattail, and a great variety of natural items from our yard, woods and surrounding area.

Split Leaf Philodendron

Every basket maker delights in the discovery of a philodendron sheath, the part that supports the leaf stem until it is grown and strong enough to hold the large decorative leaf. When the leaf is full-sized, the sheath gradually turns tan to golden brown, with a wrinkled texture; it is wide and rippled at one end and gradually tapers to a point. At this stage, it drops to the ground as it dries. These are gathered until there are a sufficient number to make a basket.