Shetland Baskets..

Conical basket, 25cm x 20cm with 90cm cord

I've just had a most interesting chat with Dr Ian Tait, our curator, who is knowledgeable about almost everything. He gave a talk recently entitled "What were all those Baskets For?"

Shetlanders in the old days were adept at using all the resources which were to hand, and made baskets for use at the fishing, on the croft and around the house. Four different types of material were used, bent (marram grass), floss ( rushes), straw and heather. There were two methods of construction, weaving and coiling.

The reason I was talking about this to Ian is that we have a few very nice baskets made of these traditional materials in the shop at the moment.  They are made by Jeanette Nowak, an artist who lives in Yell. Look at these photos, and go to the shop link to see all the baskets.

It was imports of cheaper baskets from distant parts of the world which ended the making of baskets from local materials. It is very hard to get hold of a kishie these days, and Jeanette's pieces are very much individual works of art.