My antler baskets are a departure from the chair caning and wicker repair career I’ve led for over 40+ years, which is simply repairing and restoring dilapidated furniture that a previous craftsman made. But in weaving my original design antler baskets there’s a steady stream of creativity, unique to both me and each piece I weave.

Each time I embark on a new creation, I sit quietly with the antlers listening to them as they “speak” to me. The spirit of the antler leads me to the form I am to explore and guides me to the transformation from the bare antler to completed antler basket sculpture.

I love working with the masculine element of the antler, using it as an integral part of the basket, but creating the feminine form of the vessel. The juxtaposition of the two excites and stimulates me.

Sustainable natural materials such as cattail leaves, willow, diamond willow shoots, birch bark, willow bark, lichen, moss, tamarack branches, and pine cones are carefully gathered from our rural homestead and incorporated along with commercially prepared rattan reed into my antler basket art pieces.

Since 1990 when I made my first original design antler basket and began on this career path, the process of creating my antler basket artistry grounds me; I connect with the Universe and all she presents while performing the age-old craft of basketweaving.