An Intro To Basketry With Bonnie Byrum

I recently had the opportunity to attend a short basketry workshop with Bonnie Byrum who is a friend and supporter of Boy Scouting in North Carolina. The workshop was short but it was her goal to inspire young and older hands to the wonderful world of basket weaving and her enthusiasm was more than contagious.

A newcomer could be easily intimidated from browsing around at her magnificent collection of personal weaving but her helpful demeanor quickly put everyone at ease. On the table Bonnie had four containers holding red, yellow, blue, and green dyes with short reeds soaking in the mixture. Everyone was given four of the reeds with each color.

The reeds were wet and thus easy to work as Bonnie guided us through the weaving of a wonderful symbol that represented our membership in Order of the Arrow. As seen in the close-up pictures below the blue reed represented us. The red represented our lodge chapter, the yellow our lodge, and the green our section.

At first it was a little tricky to get a knack for the weaving but I soon caught on. Although the picture to the right doesn't show it, I later decided to trim the four reed ends to a shorter length and at an angle for more visual effect.

This was a wonderful hands-on activity and I didn't see anyone that didn't have a great time. We also left with a great craft and a much better impression for those who weave.