DOROTHY MCGUINNESS, sculptural Basket Maker
Dorothy McGuinness
An incredible journey started when I took my first basket making classes in 1987. I was exposed to twining, coiling, and diagonal plaiting. I also began working with natural materials. I was hooked. I never could have guessed where those classes would lead me. Before I became involved in basketry I was interested in many different types of hand work. This included knitting, crochet, cross stitch, needle point and embroidery. Those all fell to the wayside as I continued my exploration of basketry techniques and materials at The Basketry School, in the Fremont area of Seattle.
The Basketry School became my home away from home. I enrolled in almost every class they offered, whether I could afford it or not. I was very lucky that my exploration of basketry coincided with the opening of the Basketry School, and I was at the school at least once or twice a week whether I had a class or not.
I enjoyed that resource for about 7 or 8 years and when it closed, Fishsticks (another basket school) opened north of Seattle and my basketry education continued.
It was just a great experience to have all the exposure to so many local, national and international teachers. The various techniques and materials they worked with were in my “back yard” so to speak.
Zig Zag 3, Woven using 7 starts, diagonal twill, 9 x 16 x 11”
Northwest regional basket traditions are rich with intricate native weavings and materials. I explored them all while accumulating a rich warehouse of techniques. I also developed a deep respect for both the art and the craft of basket making. I worked with a broad range of materials and started learning and weaving with commercial reed.
I then began exploring many of the locally available natural materials such as cedar and cherry bark and spruce and cedar root and many that were not locally available materials such as birch bark, oak and ash splints, and bamboo.
Jiro Yonezawa, an internationally known Japanese basket maker, converted me to the intricate twill weaves and the dedication to perfection that he conveys in his astonishing work. I was lucky to have the opportunity of working with Jiro during the years he lived in the Northwest before his return to Japan.
Shooting Stars, Woven using 3 starts, mad weave, 9 x 12 x 10”
Color and pattern enticed me into paper when I took a workshop at Fishsticks Basketry School that was presented by Jackie Abrams. Jackie is a nationally known basket teacher from Vermont, working in paper and recycled materials. It was perfect for me, as I approach my design work as if it was a fluid, moving puzzle of pattern—utilizing my considerable background and unique problem solving ability.
Paper is a very easy medium for working in diagonal twills and mad weave. The use of acrylic paints allows one to work with whatever color paper one may choose. You can buy the materials at the local art store and there is a minimum of prep required. I did not have to go out into the woods to harvest raw materials, no drying and particularly no splitting or sizing. It required no soaking, no buckets of water, and no mellowing of materials for several hours or even days.
Best of all you can cut it into strips using a pasta maker. This presented me with the immediacy of weaving which natural materials did not allow me. I now work exclusively in diagonal twills and mad weave creating contemporary sculptural baskets. With each year and basket I delve deeper into the exciting and puzzling potential of mixing design and color, challenging my mind and hands to ever more complex unknowns.
Displacement, Woven using 3 starts, diagonal twill, 9 x 14 x 8”
I like to experiment with processes and see where they will lead. I often approach my work as a kind of puzzle. Often I think, “How will this work out, if I try this, or how can I achieve this shape or pattern combination? What if I use these colors in this combination and this order? What if…” I am intrigued by the potential outcomes of any new design. They exist as the new challenges in seeing where those outcomes will guide me.
Tetrahedron 3, Woven using 4 starts, diagonal twill, Platonic solid, 13 x 13 x 13”
I am also very much interested in the math and geometric constraints of a piece. Using literally hundreds of strips of paper at a time, I explore new structural forms not frequently found in the basketry world. I enjoy exploring math and geometrical ideas such as platonic solids, Pythagoras’ Theorem and Mobius strips.
Pythagoras 2, Woven using 12 starts, diagonal twill, based on the geometric proof of the Pythagoras theorem
Stretching my twill skills with all its interpretive possibilities really engages my brain and stimulates inventive results. Each sculptural vessel emerges, engages, and of course....leads to more, and more, and more ideas.
I can make color a character in the basket; make strips thick or thin, narrow and fine or wide and bold. Assemble my color on the flat sheets and disassemble it in the pasta cutter. I can endlessly reconfigure the “what-if?” puzzles of imagination.
Byzantine, Mad weave, Mobius strip, 9 x 20 x 14”
I was born in Western, Washington and have lived here all my life. I currently reside in Everett, Washington. I have participated in numerous local, national and international shows and have won various national and international awards. I am looking forward to my next adventure in basket making.
Twister, Woven using 9 starts, diagonal twill, 8 x 27 x 8”