Register today for Madison County Historical Society’s Heritage Handicrafts: A Leisure Arts Workshop Series: Adirondack Pack Basket Workshop on Saturday, July 13 from 10 am - 2 pm. Artist, Linda Scherz, a professional artist will be the instructor.Traditionally, pack baskets were used for carrying food great distances after an afternoon of hunting, fishing, and trapping wildlife in forests and parks in Upstate New York. Throughout the 19th century, baskets began to be used for recreational purposes such as a packing food items for a picnic alongside a lake. Participants will learn basket weaving techniques from tapering, scarfing, and packing a basket tight to create a small decorative (3” x 4” x 6 1/2”H) Adirondack Pack Basket. The basket will be made from reed and finished off with a woven web harness.
The workshop will be led by Linda Scherz, of Adirondack Basketry. Linda is a professional artist who has decades of experience in basket weaving from teaching workshops and exhibiting her baskets for basket guilds and conferences all over the country. Linda enjoys working with a variety of materials, allowing her imagination to roam freely as she creates her baskets. Initially working with only reed, her interest quickly expanded to bark, then waxed linen. When able she enjoys being out in nature and harvesting white pine or red pine bark from downed trees. She likes to incorporate woodsy elements into some of her baskets as it reflects her love of the outdoors and the Adirondacks. The journey of exploration continued once introduced to waxed linen creating her miniature baskets. Her love for designing, color and pattern is expressed with each new piece. She takes pride in her work, taking extra steps to create a tightly woven, trimmed quality basket. She was awarded “Best in Show for Fine Art/Craft: Body of Work” in 2012 at the Annual Fine Furnishings Show in Providence, RI. In 2013 one of her baskets was selected for the National Basketry Organization All Things Considered VII Exhibition and in 2015 another basket was selected for All Things Considered VIII Exhibition. These shows featured “benchmarks in excellence in traditional and sculptural basketry that demonstrate superior technique, and original concept and design.
The workshop will be held at the Madison County Historical Society located at 435 Main Street in Oneida on Saturday, July 13 from 10 am- 2 pm. The cost for the workshop is $70. All basket weaving materials will be provided. This workshop is for adults and children aged 16 years and up. Space is limited to 20 participants, so register soon. Comfortable clothing is recommended and be advised that sharp tools will be used. Refreshments will be provided. For more information please contact the Madison County Historical Society at 315-363-4136, or history@mchs1900.org. The Madison County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization that operates both a museum and the Mary King Research Library located at 435 Main Street in Oneida. The society continues to preserve, collect, promote, and exhibit the history of Madison County and its fifteen towns and one city through the development of programs that enhance Madison County’s heritage. The historical society’s headquarters are housed in an 1849 Gothic Revival Villa that is listed on the State and National Registry of Historic Places.
Madison County Historical Society’s Heritage Handicrafts: A Leisure Arts Workshop Series is programming designed to engage and involve Madison County residents in Fine Arts and Craft activities common in the 19th century, with a focus on making cultural connections to creative pastimes which are still relevant today. The Adirondack Pack Basket Workshop is part of a series of five workshops: Pysanka Egg Decoration (offered in March); Botanical Watercolors (offered in May); Art of Theorem Painting (June 29); and Rag Rug Trivet (August 10).This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by CNY Arts.
