Japanese Inspired Basket Weaving- the good the bad and the ugly photography

My retreat to Saltspring Island for Joan Carrigan's Japanese Inspired Basketry Weekend was an exercise in using different hemispheres of my brain. It wasn't always very comfortable. The first day introduced us to Hexoganal Basket weaving and I was a basket case in the worst sense of the definition. The process involved brain and hand functions that showcased my dyslexic tendencies and reminded me of being in high school algebra class and feeling and completely flumoxed as my classmates chewed their way through the assignments leaving me bewildered in their dust. Happily by the third basket Joan managed to find a way to get my head and hands in synch so that I was able to complete the project. My baskets were sad little efforts though and I was so mortified with them that I put them under the table during the class-end photo shoot.
Day Two was the class I had been itching to take from the first moment that I began my basket oddessy- Random Weaving and the process was all and more I hoped for-- I was in Head and Hand Heaven! Joan introduced two methods for random weaving and if you have a chance to sign up for her class I heartily recommend it... I'm not giving away any of her secrets here!

One major discovery - it is hard to photograph random baskets. The photo makes this piece look dreadful in reality I actually like it a lot! Random weaving is going to play a major role in upcoming integrated polymer clay/ basket weaving projects. I'll have to work on photographic strategies!

What happened to the sad day one baskets? Good news- I was able to assimilate what I had learned and was able to do a bit of unwinding to rejig the projects to the point that I'm willing to display the edited versions here now....

Here's some eye candy for colouristas- it's Joan's stash of willow . All natural colours!