Lois Russell – March 3-5
Website: https://www.loisrussell.com/
Lois Russell’s fiber work reflects her history as a basket maker. She teaches nationally, and has won numerous awards including Category Winner in Excellence in Fiber 2016. Her work has been featured in Fiber Art Now and several books on fiber arts including 500 Baskets. In 2021 she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Basketry Organization. Her work is in private collections and is represented at the Racine Art Museum, Fuller Craft Museum and the Kamm Collection. Russell has served on the boards of the National Basketry Organization and of CERF+ and is currently on the boards of the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts and Penland School of Crafts.
I love textiles. I finger fabric in expensive stores. I buy one skein of yarn just because I need to have that color where I can see it every day. During my lifetime I have knit countless sweaters and blankets, made quilts, felted wool, hooked rugs, tried to weave, sewn and darned, and done all sorts of stitch- ing and embroidery. But mostly I have made baskets. That does not make me special. Humans have made baskets for thousands of years. To my mind the first basket was a cupped hand with the fingers intertwined. They made them with whatever they have handy: cedar bark in Alaska; bamboo in Japan; discarded telephone wire today in South Africa.
The rich traditions of basket making from around the world provide many possible architectures and countless fiber techniques. I can’t know what my work will be about for other people, but I hope it will provoke something, that it will be a starting place for an emotion or a thought. And, missionary that I am, I hope it will convert them to being artists in their own way, always looking for what is beautiful and interesting, perhaps where they least expect it. And I hope it will make them appreciate, even briefly, how wonderful and complex the world is.
IN-PERSON and VIRTUAL LECTURE: Tues, March 3: 9:30 am (CT): Yeah . . . But Is It a Basket?
Over the past 75 years, basketry techniques have been adopted (hijacked?) by artists who have used them to make objects that are more sculptural than functional. Discussions of this evolution have called into question what a basket “is” and whether definitions and preconceived notions help or hinder creativity in fiber as well with work in other materials. This presentation will take a look at how basketry has evolved. And how it hasn’t.
In-Person Workshop: March 2026, Lois Russell, Yeah . . . But Is It a Basket?
Tues, March 3: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Wed, March 4: 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Thurs, March 5: 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Participants will learn the basics of coiled basketry: how to start, make a design, create a shape and, of course, how to finish up. Although we will work mostly with closed coiling (and you will learn what that means) we will also experiment with some open coiling techniques.