The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Basketweaving classes are tomorrow, Saturday
By Sheila Pursglove, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: July 24, 2008
Basketweaver Mary Smith-Stokes returns for a third time as guest instructor tomorrow and Saturday at Cherilyn Braun Basketweaving, 7300 Huron River Drive in Dexter.
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The Battle Creek weaver will teach some of her original designs - a needle felted pincushion basket class on Friday evening and several selections in a day of basketweaving on Saturday.
"Mary is a top notch veteran and very well known nationally," Braun says,
Smith-Stokes has been weaving since 1984 and teaching for almost as long. She has a bachelor's degree in Home and Family Living from Siena Heights University in Adrian and has taught at the junior and high school levels.
Basketweaving became a passion with her very first class, after which she and a friend decided to pass on their newly learned art to friends.
The sessions were a success, and they continued taking classes and co-teaching - not just for friends but at several area craft shops and the Battle Creek Art Center.
They also established a business, Tisket 'n Tasket, to sell their woven baskets at local art fairs.
After her friend moved out of the area, Smith-Stokes branched out on her own, quickly gaining recognition as a skilled instructor.
She has spent more than two decades teaching many aspiring weavers through community education, girl and boy Scout troops, churches, basket guilds, and state associations in over 15 states.
A highlight was the opportunity in 2000 of teaching a class in Tokyo where her husband was working as a consultant.
"This was truly a high point in my weaving career and one of my fondest memories," she says.
Her style of basket weaving is usually along utilitarian lines, she says. While designing baskets, she includes weaving techniques that will give students a more vast knowledge of skills upon which to build their own creations and improve their weaving level.
"Nothing gives me more pleasure than to see a student's excitement when mastering a technique or learning a new method of weaving," she says. "And there are many tricks I've passed on from former students to current ones.
"We can all learn something new from others"
Smith-Stokes, who has marketed several dozen basket patterns, was featured in a recently published book spotlighting basketweavers in the Great Lakes region that have contributed to the preservation of the art of basket weaving.
Three of her baskets have been donated to the Michigan State Museum along with over 70 baskets of other weavers involved in this project
She also has woven baskets for an upscale bath and kitchen shop in Kalamazoo and a trunk for a 1911 Hudson. Her Cat Head Mitten Basket pattern was featured in 'Just Patterns' magazine a few years ago.
Smith-Stokes is the second top-notch instructor in recent weeks at the Dexter store. Earlier in the month, international teacher Gail Hutchinson from West Virginia spent three days teaching there.
"My shop has been a draw for several of the best known teachers in the country," Braun says, "And for one of the best known in the world, Flo Hoppe. She has taught in Australia, Japan, Germany, England, Canada, the United States, and I don't even know how many other countries, and she was here last summer to teach for three days
"I guess my shop is getting known nationally little by little. I've had teachers from all over the country and with various specialties come here to teach."
Like Smith-Stokes, Braun was hooked on basketweaving from her very first attempt, and since then has "gone crazy" weaving, designing baskets, and teaching, she says.
She was excited and honored to be featured as the cover story in the May 2008 "Basket Bits" magazine, the largest basket magazine in the country.
"It's a pretty big deal in basket circles," she says. "I was also the featured artist in the Fall 2007 'Just Patterns' magazine, the other major basket magazine in the country.
"I still don't think people realize how rare it is to have a full service basket shop right here in Dexter, with an internationally known teacher at their fingertips."
Sheila Pursglove is a freelance writer. She can be reached at bingley51@yahoo.com.
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