Jane Harding Weaves Baskets from Around the World

Jane Harding soaks up basket weaving techniques like a sponge. The High Country Basketry Guild member has traveled far and wide, always picking up new tricks of the trade along the way.

“I try to take as many different classes and learn how to use as many kinds of [basketry] material as I can,” Harding said. “I think that makes a lot of sense. If you’re looking to find what you really enjoy, you need to try many different things.”

The Reston-based artisan joined three years ago. Her work is on display and for sale at the gallery. “Being a member of the gallery has given me more interest in creating more,” she said. “It has spurred me on.”

Harding grew up in a self-described artist community, surrounded by things that were made by hand and always encouraged to become involved in crafts. Her father was a professor of ceramic art at Ohio State University. She developed an interest in weaving after she was married. “I really took to basketry because it just made sense to me,” she said. “I like the shades and I like making utilitarian things.”

Her favorite basketry material is willow. In 2005, she struck up a conversation with a Scotsman at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival who was making coiled straw backpacks used to carry peat. He invited her to join the Scottish Basketmakers’ Circle, where she took her first class in willow basketry from a basketry master from England. “It was just a delightful experience,” she said. “And here I was, a first time basketmaker with one of the best willow basketmakers in Europe.”

Harding has also met willow basketmakers when traveling in Denmark. One Danish basketmaker taught her a technique from Burkina Faso featuring a unique weave. The willow is twisted into a braid and is often embellished with strips of bark or colorful beads. 

Fellow Artisans United member chose some of Harding’s Burkina Faso braids to hang in the gallery’s current showcase. “They’re so whimsical,” Kulenguski said. “I like the way she adds beads to them. [Her work] is different than anyone else’s in the gallery. It’s unique to her. She has a vivid creativity.”

Harding said she doesn’t know anyone else in the Northern Virginia area that uses willow or the weaves she has learned. “It’s hard to find people close by who are interested in willow,” she said. “I try to latch onto them when I can.”

The artisan spends every summer at her family’s cabin in Ontario, where she has met many willow basketmakers. She takes classes and attends conferences where she learns new techniques. “There are still some things that I haven’t made yet that I’d like to find out how to make,” she said. “I want to perfect my technique in willow.”