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My first basket illusion. This was a practice piece. I learned a lot about what does and doesn't work. Maple wood was beaded and then burned to create the basket weave pattern and colored with Prismacolor markers and a clear acrylic topcoat applied.
Bill,
Like this one! I notice you have a couple of transitions of weaving strips. These weren't obvious and I had to zoom in to see it.
Is this to keep the squares from growing too large?
Thanks for the comments Al and Gerald. This was done several years ago and was my first attempt at a basket illusion. I was mostly winging it so I sort of made things up as I went along. My first exposure to basket illusions was when I saw some of the pieces that David Nittmann made. I wanted to attend his demonstrations at SWAT years ago, but missed Part 1 which was the most important part. I managed to catch most of Part 2. I used a Sorby beading tool which I found to be far from satisfactory. The pyrography on the beads is similar to what I saw in some of David Nittmann's pieces where the burn lines run in a straight line radially which requires periodically multiplying by two as the squares get larger. As far as the rim design is concerned, I was lost so I looked at some woven strip baskets such as fruit baskets or baskets that can be found at Garden Ridge. I used Prismacolors which I found to be not quite satisfactory for this purpose, but it was what I had on hand from taking a class from Andi Wolfe a year earlier. Somebody was looking out for me because the coloring pattern was purely a lucky accident. I decided to make a chevron design, so without any pre-planning or counting squares, I just started coloring as if I knew what I was doing. It is the most amazingly lucky accident that the number of chevrons came out to be exactly six without any fraction of a chevron. I should have gone out and bought a lottery ticket. I copied the colors on the rim from a cheese basket ... you know the kind that relatives give you at Christmas.
BTW, I have noticed that Harvey Meyer and a few others do this same type of basket illusion. I probably wouldn't have ever made another basket illusion piece EXCEPT for the fact that Jim Adkins did a program at SWAT a couple years ago on a completely different type of basket illusion. When I saw his work, it's realism so captivated my attention that I couldn't shake it from my mind ... I just had to try it. Fortunately, Jim is a very helpful guy and was willing to spend time with me on the phone discussing the fine points of what he does. If you look at my album here you will see my second attempt at a basket illusion in the style that Jim Adkins does. I donated it to our club for our Christmas banquet last year. I am doing another as a gift for the widow of a former club member who was a very good friend of mine. Oh, about my first attempt at a Jim Adkins style of basket illusion ... I still have it ... not because it is good, but because it is so bad, but I learned a heck of a lot making it.
My first basket illusion. This was a practice piece. I learned a lot about what does and doesn't work. Maple wood was beaded and then burned to create the basket weave pattern and colored with Prismacolor markers and a clear acrylic topcoat applied.
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