 Toni Best, a Native American style basketmaker, and teacher of coiling and gourding, was attending one of Lois' class for the first time.
Toni writes: "Lois
Rainwater is such a nice lady..we are lucky to be able to take classes with
her.
?I can't wait until December when we will take one in which you take the
whole king palm seed stem (infloresence) and weave it onto itself. They are
beautiful.
"Lois had green grasses she had collected from about 2 years ago. She taught
us how to coil using the green grass...start, stitches and techniques she
uses. I am including a picture of Lois, one of all of our starts plus some
of Lois' and the basket I completed the next day which I started at Lois'.
"I truly got inspired..she had a rosemary basket. so when I came home, I cut
rosemary and wove one. The leaves help hinder seeing the stitches...and she
had some kelp baskets. My tub is now full of kelp and I plan to weave one
today. I had used kelp as the final rim on a gourd, but have not yet woven
an entire basket with it."
 
And here are the finished basket photos - LOVELY!
See Leigh's review, below, for links to MORE photos from Lois Rainwater's Summer Coiled Grass basket class!
(Check Toni's gallery for baskets!)
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Leigh Adams has been a student of Lois for some time now. An experienced basketmaker and teacher in her own right, best known for her fancifully carved, painted, and coiled gourds.
(Check out Leigh's Gallery for her gourds and baskets!)
We celebrated with her when Leigh made her first button basket under Lois' tutelidge. (at right, with a Tarahumara plaited pine needle basket.) Some of Leigh's experience:
"We all were so happy to be there and it would be so good for people to know how we all did it differently, how we each changed things to suit ourselves. To me, the grass looked fresh and green, but it had been picked and stored in the garage for 2 years! Then she soaked it for an hour.
"Like pine needles, the hardest part was the start although we began with a knot in the grasses! Then a button and then just like any other coil. Sue had perfect stitches, Toni enclosed a coil, of course, I told jokes, took pictures and talked too much, Suzanne got tired and was unhappy that her basket was not perfectly round but it made us all think about doing different shapes and Lois told us about a student who angled the sides of her basket to create an octagonal form. The fifth lady had been working in isolation with a kit she bought and was so excited to hear about the pineneedle group that she could hardly stand it! She'd been making coiled raffia baskets with raffia wrapped over a raffia core. They were fabulous! And so tough and strong you could sit on them if they were larger."
Now Leigh brings us a lovely series of photos of the summer grass class, which is featured on Lois' own website.
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Sue Erb Sue writes:
"I felt cradled in the arms of sister basketmakers...a natural gathering of weaving energy.
"Lois is so maternal, and so talented. She is such a tolerant, and informative teacher.
"It was a fluid day that left a warm memory. "
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