Contact Us at babminformation@gmail.com
“Basketmakers are the best people in the world.” –Maxine Kirmeyer
The Bay Area Basket Makers (BABM) guild was founded in 1984 by Maxine Kirmeyer and Jude’ Silva to support and further interest in basketry as a craft and art form. The guild serves as a source of information and as a means of communication among basketmakers, providing inspiration and friendship. We welcome basketmakers of all levels and expertise, from amateurs to professionals.
During the year, we publish 5 issues of our newsletter “Twinings” which is available in paper and by email, as well as on this website.
At present, our guild has 89 members–most reside in the greater San Francisco Bay Area but a few live as far away as Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Utah.
To create their baskets, our members use a wide variety of materials, from the traditional reed, splint, pine needles, plants, kelp, paper, and gourds to more exotics like hog gut, fish skin and fish bones, horsehair, fleece, wire and wire mesh, to reusable finds of plastic bags and yarns – employed in techniques of coiling, plaiting, twining, knotting, looping, felting, randing, and more.
Our youngest member is 13-year old Gregory Thomas, already an accomplished basketmaker in his own right. Our most senior member, Florence Powers, is almost ninety and steadily takes home blue, red, and white ribbons from county fairs for her pine needle baskets.
December Holiday Party 2010
Hey Jutta, it is wonderful! Thank you for all your hard work. Marilyn
Dear BABM,
I found your website by pure luck and I am glad I did. A friend of mine gave me an old demijohn that his mother used to store vinegar in and probably stored wine in it before that.
The bottle itself is in good condition. But the cane basket cover is coming apart. My question is this. Do you know of anyone that can restore or re-do the cane basket cover. I make wine at home and would like to re-use the demijohn to store wine or maybe even store home made vinegar in once again. I live in San Francisco, so if there is someone out there that’s willing to take this on I would greatly appreciate it.
Dear Pete,
thank you for visiting our website. The Caning Shop – http://www.caning.com – in Berkeley might be able to help you with restoring the basket cover of your demijohn. As you may have seen from the Gallery section of our website, we do mainly sculptural pieces, using basketry techniques.
Hello,
I would really like to learn how to make baskets and wondered if you could provide guidance on how to start. I live in San Francisco and wondered if you had advice about how to get started.
Thank you,
Marti
Hi Marti,
thank you for visiting our website. There are many books on basketweaving as well as tutorials on YouTube. Just check around on Google and see what comes up. Good luck.