Newsletter
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March 2024 Newsletter
Upper SC Basketmakers Guild
“Preserving the Art of Basketweaving”
Meets 2ndSaturday each month (Feb. – Dec.) 9:30-2:30
Lutheran Church of Our Savior, 2600 Wade Hampton Blvd, Greenville, SC
Website: basketweaversofsc.com
Facebook: Upper SC Basketmakers Guild⁹
Contact: upperscbasketmakers@gmail.com
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Other related basket weaving groups you may want to check out:
Dolores von Rosen Basket Guild
4th Tuesday per month 10AM-2PM
Silverstreet Community Center (Near Newberry, SC)
SC Natural Weavers Group currently not meeting but will be again soon stay tuned
Used to meet 3rd Monday per month 10AM-12PM Rensing Center Library, Pickens, SC
Your Board:
Deborah Hill -President deborahhill54@gmail.com
Judy Brooks -Vice President jdbrooks0226@gmail.com
Denise Gillam -Treasurer denise.gillam@gmail.com
Michele Hartwell -Newsletter Editor micheleflgarden@gmail.com
Janet Lampson -Recording Secretary lampsonjc@reagan.com
Julie Honchar -Web Mistress (+ so much more) jfhonchar@yahoo.com
Debbie Wilson -Member-at-large/Past President artbasgo@gmail.com
Pati English -Member-at-large basketsmyspecialty@yahoo.com
Tina Few -Member-at-large kristina.few@gmail.com
Minutes from February 10, 2024 meeting:
Debbie Hill opened the meeting with a reminder that we all need to get our membership dues sent in to Denise. Forms are available if anyone needs them.
We had 15 teachers for the weave-in last month and 135 people signed up.
Our guild has been gifted with some beautiful Nantucket molds. We may do a class using them. Judy will keep them for us and set up a procedure for us to check them out to use.
Our plans for the year:
Christmas Festival of trees: we will decorate a tree as a means of advertising the guild. March 9 meeting dedicated to making ornaments for the tree. Please bring any patterns for ornaments that you have.
April 13: Diane, Martha, and Janet are teaching how to make a Cathead basket. The kits are going to be around $20. Basic basket reed will be supplied but if you want to put color in it, some will be provided or you may bring your own. There was a sample basket at the convention and a sign-up sheet at Dennis White’s wood bases booth.
May 11: making kits for newcomers
June 8: Peggy McCarson can come and teach.
July 13: weaving on a glass vase with Debbie Hill and Janet Lampson
August 9 and 10- workshop weekend with August Moon baskets details to follow, but all paid members will receive $20.00 off the cost of this 2 day workshop !!!
September 14: A cane necklace ornament.
October 12: the Nantuckets
November 9: Patti English will teach her Josephine knot basket
December 14: party!
WEAVE-IN UPDATE
Speaking from personal experience, and feedback from many who attended- A WONDERFUL TIME!!! 21 classes in a 3 day period…it was so difficult to choose.
PATIENT and talented Teachers, great vendors, yummy food, an unparalleled raffle, and sweet fun attendees.
THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS!!
Very special Thank you to EVERYONE who organized this event, there were many!!!
Please bring anything from the Weave-In you would like, for Show and Tell at the Meeting on March 9.
Attention-Yearly Membership dues of $20.00 Need to be sent to Denise Gillam including your information by either printing and filling out the form on our website or including that info along with your check…THANK YOU😊
At the March meeting, we will be making ornaments for the Christmas festival of trees. Kits will contain one to make at the meeting for the tree and one for you to take home and make for your own tree or to gift someone. We plan on having 3 stations with different ornaments at each. You don’t need to bring anything other than your normal tools.
Materials will be provided. Pictures next page😊
I’m still trying to get folks to submit bios and a picture for the newsletter, in an effort to get to know our members better.
ANYONE is welcome to send one to me that is a member.
Anything basket related that you would like to submit to the Newsletter is welcome. Special tips in basket making, basket resources or vendors you’d like to share.
I would also like to do a recipe feature each month. If there’s a dish that you’ve brought for our potluck that month, please email me your recipe.
For next month’s Newsletter-please have submissions to me by March 21st. Thank you
APRIL 13 meeting Diane, Janet and Martha will be teaching
Cathead baskets with your own expression.
The fee is $20.00 most materials included along with the pattern and their EXPERTISE. If you have a particular color in your stash that you would like to use, bring it with you.
If possible, please sign up and pay at the March meeting, so they will know how many kits to make up.
Beautiful examples on the next page, to get your creativity going!!
Newsletter
Pictures are visible in email sent to members
January/February 2024 Newsletter
Upper SC Basketmakers Guild
“Preserving the Art of Basketweaving”
Meets 2ndSaturday each month (Feb. – Dec.) 9:30-2:30
Lutheran Church of Our Savior, 2600 Wade Hampton Blvd, Greenville, SC
Website: Basketweaversofsc.com
Facebook: Upper SC Basketmakers Guild⁹
Contact: upperscbasketmakers@gmail.com
SAVE THE DATE!
Weave-In 2024 is being held February 23-25, 2024
@ Embassy Suites, Greenville, SC
Check website for details.
18 teachers/3 days & nights of weaving fun/raffles/vendors
Tell your friends & neighbors!
If you have volunteered for the event please let Denise Gillam know if you have questions, we look forward to and appreciate your help!!
Shoppers Needed for Raffle Gift Baskets!!
Our guild is putting together 3 themed baskets for the Weave-In Raffle.
*Gardening *Spa /Pampering *Entertainment (wine/snacks)
Please keep these in mind when you are out and about shopping. Pick up some items to help fill the baskets. We want to make them really special. We will not be having any further raffles at our guild meetings this year so that we can focus on these themed baskets. We will try to bring them to each meeting so that you can watch them grow!
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Other related basket weaving groups you may want to check out:
Delores von Rosen Basket Guild
4th Tuesday per month 10AM-2PM
Silverstreet Community Center (Near Newberry, SC)
SC Natural Weavers Group currently not meeting but will be again soon stay tuned
Used to meet 3rd Monday per month 10AM-12PM
Rensing Center Library, Pickens, SC
Your Board:
Deborah Hill -President deborahhill54@gmail.com
Judy Brooks -Vice President jdbrooks0226@gmail.com
Denise Gillam -Treasurer denise.gillam@gmail.com
Michele Hartwell -Newsletter Editor micheleflgarden@gmail.com
Janet Lampson -Recording Secretary lampsonjc@reagan.com
Julie Honchar -Web Mistress (+ so much more) jfhonchar@yahoo.com
Debbie Wilson -Member-at-large/Past President artbasgo@gmail.com
Pati English -Member-at-large basketsmyspecialty@yahoo.com
Tina Few -Member-at-large kristina.few@gmail.com
Minutes from December 9th meeting:
Debbie Hill opened the meeting.
There will not be a guild meeting in January as usual but there will be a board meeting at Michele’s house on Saturday the 6th to plan what we will do for the coming year.
Debbie Wilson and Denise Gillam are the chair people for the convention. They reported that the met with the hotel people and picked out the menus. There will be a soup and baked potato bar for one and a pasta bar for the other. There will be salads served with both and meats that can be added separately. We will probably eat inside this year due to possible weather issues in February. We have a nice little cushion if we cancel because of weather and have met our room quota. So we are in pretty good shape at this point. We have 132 students and 18 teachers so far.
Judy Brooks reported on the goody bags. Everything we are putting in there are ready. A few donations will be coming with the teachers when they arrive so we could use help incorporation those items at that time.
Raffle report from Julie Honchar: Still need additions to the 3 themed baskets. And last minute items will be added at the convention start.
We can start setting up at 3pm on Thursday and check-in will be at 2pm.
The next guild meeting will be in February 2nd Saturday.
Attention-Yearly Membership dues of $20.00 Need to be sent to Denise Gillam including your information by either printing and filling out the form on our website or including that info along with your check…THANK YOU😊
Upcoming dates (more exciting project info to follow)
February 10 meeting-Heart Project (pattern and materials provided)prep for weave-in, pot luck
Please bring your donations for the raffle baskets and/or raffle to this meeting or to set-up beginning at 3pm Thursday 2/22
March 9 meeting-cork woven coaster
April 13 meeting-cat head basket with Martha White/Janet lampson/Diane Cameron
August 9 and 10- workshop weekend with August Moon baskets details to follow, but all paid members will receive $20.00 off the cost of this 2 day workshop !!!
Speaking of RAFFLE BASKETS for the WEAVE-IN
We have 2 of these containers we want to fill with goodies for our Spa and Entertainment Raffle Baskets. So if you have some items at home that you would like to contribute or find some nice sale items in your travels, please bring them to our February meeting.
There is also a very large pot for plants (not pictured, sorry) that we need to fill for our Gardening Themed Raffle Baskets. As you shop around a lot of garden items will be on clearance, coming to the end of the season.
Thank you in advance for your contributions 😊
Getting to know our Members
Kristina Few
My passion has always been art in any forms. At a young age, I remember my mother drawing faces and I would practice my drawing using her art work. One Christmas, I got an easel, art supplies, and Drawing books. In Junior high they choose me to design all the stage backdrops. I was the ask to paint panels for a downtown Greenville construction display.
In 1972, I was chosen as an exchange student to go to Europe to study early Christian art for two month during my junior year of collage. It was an exceptional experience and gave me a real insight into the art I saw in my travels. I used every experience to teach my student about art,
I graduated in commercial and fine art education. My first job was to design fabrics. I did commercial art , ads and presentations. It was rewarding. I was working as an ad designer for Mc Donald in Atlanta, but came home to care for my ill father. He passed away at a young age.
Then I decided that teaching art would offer a future with a pension and time during our breaks to sell my work. I have a BA, I MA or Masters, got my 30 above and was Nation Board certified in early and middle childhood art education.
I wrote grants to start a Gifted art program along with the artists in schools core program from the South Carolina Arts Commission. We sponsored over 100 artists in my teaching career. It was a wonderful program and my student got to experience many art forms, such as printmaking, Edgefield face jars, Charleston Gullah basket making , colonial art and recreated Colonial Williamsburg visits, sculpture, illustration doing Christmas Cards . My students were so excited to try new ways to create art. They met the best artists in South Carolina. Many now are professionals that took their love for art into their own work.
I sold my work to specialty businesses and museums such as Winterthur Museum and Gardens, the Biltmore House and Gardens and the Getty museum in CA. I copied Antique or vintage tiles in their collections. Each was hand painted and represented something about the museum. It was labor intensive. I enjoyed seeing my work on display. . Biltmore also commissioned work for their festival of flowers.
I strive for making items that are unique and represent history. My mother encouraged me to me to research my family history and this is why I love Williamsburg and Charleston. My 11th generation grandfather signed the US Constitution. He was the first senator from Ga., William Few. The name William continues in each generation of the Few family. . He was a friend’s with George Washington. Over the years, they wrote letters to each other and visited from time to time. The state of GA. Archives Still have many of those letters. After I retired, I worked in watercolor, did stain glass and started making baskets again. I also make hand built ceramics. I still sell my work even today. It is important for me to try new and creative ways to do Art. It has been a privilege to get to know and work with talented basket weavers in the guild.
😊
CONTENT DEADLINE FOR January Newsletter December 22
As your Newsletter Editor, I’d like to
apologize for the lateness of this month’s
Newsletter. Many of you may know, I had
knee replacement surgery in September,
was recovering well and then fell
November 10 and broke my hip!! Thank
you for the cards, each one truly
brightened my day. Recovery is going
slower than I had hoped, and will miss
seeing everyone at the December
meeting. Hope you all have a wonderful
Holiday Season!!
STILL WOULD LIKE TO receive bios and
pictures from Tina Few and Pati English for my
get to know you spot. It would be GREAT to
start receiving bios from all of our members!!!
Any volunteers? 😊