The make-up of Basket Illusion No. 6

[Jean-Louis Meynier]

It was an epic experience with a lot of first for me and that blow up... To burn a rectangle and color one design it took me an average of 25 minutes (you do have to correct the mistakes if you have some, and with burn lines spacing less than a millimeter, on the coloring, I had some). I do have 50 designs outside and 50 inside. Another average of 30 minutes to burn the rectangle between the design and again 50 outside and 50 inside. I had an average of 29 burn line per inch, except on the last row of the design inside to avoid an over lapping with the design of the row above where I had to go to 34 burn lines per inch. Then I had to control the temperature of my burning tip. If it was too hot with 29 burn lines per inch I will be basically all burn. On the real basket as shown on the PDF's you hardly see the line between the stitches and I was trying to replicate that. What an artist this Louisa Keyser, certainly the best Native American Basket Weaver of all time.

 

[Jean-Louis Meynier]

What will have been a better way to do the glue jam or another method?

 

[Mike Johnson]

Jean-Louis,

A lot of fine detail work went in to that piece, not sure if my eyes could handle that amount of fine detail work these days. On some of the hollow forms I have done in the past I added temporary supports on the inside to provide support for turning and removed them after the turning was complete. If I need support on the exterior of a hollow form I have used different diameters of heavy rubber bands cut from different sized diameter inner tubes. You can cut them to different widths to provide different tensions needed for the application.

 

[Curt Fuller]

As one that has done a fair amount of basket illusion work, I'm in awe at the detail you've been able to achieve. Having spent 40-50 hours on a basket with the cramped hands and stiff neck that go along with it I can't even imagine the time you put into doing these "your way". You are certainly a master at this.

 

[Bill Boehme]

As one that has done a fair amount of basket illusion work, I'm in awe at the detail you've been able to achieve. Having spent 40-50 hours on a basket with the cramped hands and stiff neck that go along with it I can't even imagine the time you put into doing these "your way". You are certainly a master at this.

I agree 110%.

 

[Jean-Louis Meynier]

Jean-Louis,

A lot of fine detail work went in to that piece, not sure if my eyes could handle that amount of fine detail work these days. On some of the hollow forms I have done in the past I added temporary supports on the inside to provide support for turning and removed them after the turning was complete. If I need support on the exterior of a hollow form I have used different diameters of heavy rubber bands cut from different sized diameter inner tubes. You can cut them to different widths to provide different tensions needed for the application.

Thanks Mike for your comments. You are right, temporary supports on the inside will work fine for some cases. Here I had to remove a good 1/2" below the glue jam.

 

[Jean-Louis Meynier]

Thank you Curtis and Bill! I really do appreciate your kind words. Thank you very much."
I always look for your posts at the Photo Gallery Curtis, I really enjoyed all of them.
Bill are you going to the SWAT in August? I will be going. If you go maybe we could try to meet.

 

[Dave Hulett]

Jean-Louis Thank you for posting the documents. I met Jim Adkins at SWAT last year too! I had done some BI pieces but Jim's work took BI technique to a new level. I am most intrigued by the detailing the inside as well as outside and plan on trying this sometime this winter. Will look for you at SWAT.

 

[Jean-Louis Meynier]

Yes I agree with you, Jim took the BI technique to the next level. My first 2 BIs where done following David Nittmann technique. Bob Nolan, a member of the BAWA club in the Bay Area, after looking at my first 2, suggested that I should check Jim's work. His technique gives a more realistic aspect to a basket. The same spacing of the burn lines on the beads from the center to the rim and the offset by 1/2 the spacing on the bead above give the illusion. It is of course more time consuming and not always easy to do it constantly but the result is the illusion . They are 2 complete different techniques. I don't burn between the beads. I made a burning tip that simulates the stitches. I will bring it to show it to you.

 

[Dave Hulett]

Jean-Louis.... thank you! it was great meeting you.. I hope you thought SWAT was worth the trip. Don't forget to send me the PDF file!..... may our paths cross again.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Is it a different PDF than the PDF's in post #1? I enjoyed talking to @Jean-Louis Meynier at SWAT yesterday. I wish that I could have stayed to meet you also @davhu, but I wasn't feeling well.

 

[Jean-Louis Meynier]

Bill and Dave it was a pleasure to meet you at the SWAT 2019 symposium. I will certainly see you again there next year.
It is basically the same PDF's than in post #1. I added my Thanks to Marvin Cohodas for sending me all his research articles and books on the Native American basket weavers. It was a big help in my research. I also added more detail pictures in particularly of the rim. I will send you both the PDF file.
Dave you could check my website (still in construction): https://jlwoodshop.com , I do have some YouTubes and step-by-step pictures on some of my basket illusions. I will update my website soon.