Natural Materials for Basketry

I love variety in my work, and using unusual natural materials is one way to shake things up a bit!

My shop now features a few naturals that I grow using organic methods. Below are a few examples of baskets made with bleached Hibiscus fiber. It's a wonderful, versatile fiber that can be used natural, bleached or dyed.

I've also listed Miscanthus grass, which is great for coiling, rim treatment and embellishment. Visit my shop and check them out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/midnightcoiler

This wild and wooly twined basket features bleached hibiscus bark accents and peeled and natural akebia. The beads are actually seeds.

This one was started with a hibiscus center and features a hibiscus rim. It also has pine needles miscanthus and kudzu!

Spring Flowers from my Garden

My garden is a jungle of beautiful flowers. They are taking over the house! Some are good for weaving baskets.

Lorepetalum

Lorapetalum with Akebia taking over house

Akebia quinata, a beautiful vine for weaving

Akebia quinata, also known as Chocolate Vine, smells like grapes to me.

Wisteria growing wild.

Wisteria, another great vine for weaving

Carolina Jasmine

Carolina Jasmine is a thin flexible vine for weaving

Some of my Teacher's Marketplace Items for the North Carolina Basketmakers Convention

Basketmakers, Are you ready for the 2 hour basketry feeding frenzy we call Teacher's Marketplace at the NCBA Convention? I'm preparing and here are some of the items I'll have for sale. Take a look at my Midnightcoiler Shop on Etsy to see more.

miniature clay bead bowls rustic pottery tie-ons

stoneware pottery charms

willow needle cases

Cork Cubbies™ cork vials

drilled/dyed/ready to coil mini gourds & jewelry pieces

kits

Fibers:

hibiscus, kudzu, miscanthus, pecan stems, yucca, palm inflorescence

twined waxed linen necklaces neckcord maker

gourd seed

See you at Convention, March 11th, and at Teacher's Marketplace, Friday evening, March 12th! Can't wait!

Naturally Yours,
lynn hoyt

A Rare Snowfall!

It can go years without snowing in Eastern NC. Here's what it looked like yesterday at my place.

Hurry up and Wait for the Birds

My mission was photoing birds at one of my carved gourd birdfeeders... seemingly simple, right? The birds had been coming and going all morning, like my feeders were Grand Central Station. My bait was black oil sunflower seed, topped with chopped peanuts. Our tufted titmice love peanuts!

After about an hour of sitting quitely and still with camera poised, not one bird was to be seen. I then rigged this very crude blind with branches, vest and bedsheets. The vest arm opening was my window as I sat on a little stool within. After a while the birds started coming back.

My arms were mighty tired from holding the camera up in one position for so long, but I finally managed to get a few shots of a tufted titmouse at one of my gourd birdfeeders!

Visit my shop for hand-carved bird houses, feeders and more.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/midnightcoiler

Baskets I'm Teaching at NCBA, 2010

Please take a look at these photos of the baskets I'm teaching at NCBA Convention in March. Unfortunately the brochure photos didn't show the color or detail at all. These are a better representation of what they look like. I hope you'll tell your friends to look here and will consider them when selecting your classes. Thanks. Lynn Hoyt

SA453 Saturday 8:30am-12:30pm Gleam-n-Glow Beaded Mini Gourd
Lynn Hoyt 4 Hours All Levels 2 1/4"H X 3 1/4" D $35 page 31

Learn to bead coil on these gently undulating mini gourds. These vibrantly colored little vessels will gleam and glow with every stitch as you coil flat across the top with fragrant sweetgrass. Color coordinated options offered. A treat for the senses and a darling basket for rings and small treasures.

SU454 Sunday 8:00am-12:00pm Oval Fantasy Sweetgrass Necklace
Lynn Hoyt 4 hours All Levels 2 1/4"W X 2 3/4" H $35 page 40

Lots of techniques will complete this colorful sweet-smelling pendant. You'll start by learning to inlay a handmade gilded stoneware medallion into an oval gourd piece and apply a woodburned accent. Then coil the pendant with fragrant sweetgrass, add a brass finding and twist a waxed linen neck cord. This is small work, so manual dexterity, a small light and possibly magnifying glasses are recommended.

First Stop on the NiftyKnits Meerkat World Tour: Rural Blounts Creek, NC!

Etta the Meerkat arrived here in rural Eastern NC all the way from England, and her creator Heather of Niftyknits! What a sweet little kat she is! After unpacking, we set off on a geeky fun adventure together: a trip to explore some of the sharks teeth that our area is internationally known for, at the Aurora Fossil Museum!
As you can see, Etta was in awe of this Great White replica and all the fossil sharks teeth!

Later, back at my house, Etta had a tour of our 75 acre property. My husband Howard is a ham radio operator and she was intrigued by the four huge radio towers in our fields. All of a sudden, Etta was gone! I guess her taste for adventure got the best of her, as I spotted her climbing the 130 footer! Bad Etta! By the time I got there, she was hanging on for dear life!

Luckily she managed to pull herself up and climb down

with no harm done... what a girl! Happily, we went on to safer pursuits.


I think Etta enjoyed seeing the gourd art from my Midnightcoiler shop, and some of my gourd harvest. She told me the egg gourds were her favorites! Tomorrow my little Meerkat friend leaves for her next stop. I'll always remember Etta and what a good time we had together! To see more of Nifty's fabulous Meerkats, check out her shop, NiftyKnits. Read her Blog and join the Meerkat World Tour Fan Page on Facebook to follow all of Etta's adventures, as well as her sibling, Treasure, who is also traveling the world!

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies

Midnightcoiler's Sugar Plums

Tiny bowls for rings, candy, pills, beads, gift presentation & favors

Veteran's Day Remembrance

Anthony Diblasi, US Veteran served in WWII and Korea.
Purple heart

Today I remember him and all US soldiers past and present who honor our country with their service. Thank you!

My dad was a handsome fellow, played football in high school and was known by the girls as "he of the wavy hair."

His bravery surfaced early.. while out on a date, he was held up at gunpoint, but managed to wrestle the robber down and hold him until police arrived.

He was married to my mom for 49 years, and had two children. He enjoyed fishing, watching football, going out to eat, Christmas, flowers and birds, and could be found just about any day out puttering in his yard.

Today we honor all veterans, living and dead, for their service and sacrifice.

Pears Anyone?

The pear harvest continues. We had enough to share with friends, with enough left for several batches for the freezer and for canning. Still working on the canning.

Do you recognize this variety? I would love to know. The two trees we bought were labeled 'Moonglow', but they don't look like photos I've seen. The fruit can be huge, has a russet skin over green or yellow tones. Crisp but sweet flesh, medium graininess. They cook up great, better than canned pears from the store. They were starting to fall from the trees in late September and I've been harvesting several times through mid-October.