Market Day Henry Charles Bryant (British, 1812-1890)
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Zig Zag is a podcast devoted to basketry culture and to the weavers who keep these traditions alive.
The ancient art of basket weaving lives in the ancestral memory of all human hands. Techniques, styles and materials are a reflection of place, culture and time. Many of these cultural traditions have been fractured as a result of colonization, migration, industrialization and assimilation. My goal with this podcast is to weave together stories, songs and interviews with a focus on how basketry can renew and deepen our relationship with the living world. I will focus on the basketry traditions of North America, where I live and the traditions of Europe, where my ancestors are from.
Zion National Park
Artist in Residency
Winter in the Canyon
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For the month of February 2025 I got to live in a little stone cottage tucked up in a grove of cottonwood trees along the virgin river. My time in Zion Canyon was a dream.
read more about my residency here
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spider babe basket among the sandstone
A Basket is a Love Song
Click here to read my essay
Twine Twist Turn
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Like all living beings, willow pulses with the rhythm of the seasons. Harvest, sort, bundle and store in a dry place to cure. Soak, mellow and weave a basket into being! Gather gifts and see how the basket holds them. The process of making a basket is a celebration of relationships. A love song to the rivers, to my teachers and to the willow.
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“Baskets are like stories. If you listen they will tell you something.”- Julia Parker
“Traditional art using natural materials expresses our participation and relationship with the natural world.”
-Gregory Cajete
Weik Wicker Witch
The word weik means ‘to bend or shape’ in Proto-Indo-European. Wicker, wicked, and witch all share this root. Witches were thought to have the ability to ‘bend or shape’ reality. Wicker work transforms flexible willow sticks into sturdy baskets. During the transition from feudalism to capitalism in old Europe, the ability to to transform natural materials into useful tools was seen as suspect.
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This Zig Zag yellow garden queen weaves her web in a willow patch at my teachers farm.
“Place is telling you everything that is going on. Pay attention to place.”
- Tyson Yunkaporta
The ancient art of basket weaving lives in the ancestral memory of all human hands.
Techniques, styles and materials are a reflection of place, culture and time. Many cultural traditions have been fractured as a result of colonization, industrialization, migration and assimilation. Willow offers me a way to study the tattered quilt of my European lineage and traditions and engage with the complexities of stewarding stolen land. Weaving with willow, a plant that bridges this land and the land of my ancestors, has brought me a sense of belonging. I walk that bridge every time I use ancient weaving techniques with local plants.
Are bendy sticks calling your name?
“What you return to over and over is where you invest your love.”
-Aaron Abeyta
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