Artist's Statement

For nearly 40 years I’ve lived in an absolute frenzy of itchy, dry skin. It took a chance encounter with a bar of handmade unscented oatmeal soap to give me some clues to my problem skin. With persistent research and lots of trial and error I discovered that beauty products can be made without all the harsh chemicals and petroleum based products that are in today’s commercial soaps and beauty products. My goal is to provide natural products that are not only pleasing to your skin but beneficial too.



The Basketmaker - Jo Anne Farrell Named Among Best Traditional Artists Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg, VA) - July 5, 2008 Story by Luanne Austin

Photography by Thomas J. Turney

MOUNT SIDNEY

It started 18 years ago when Jo Anne Farrell's stepdaughter offered to teach her to make baskets.

Now, Farrell ranks as one of America's top traditional artisans, whose specialty is Nantucket lightship baskets.

For the sixth year in a row, she's listed in the Directory of Traditional American Crafts published annually by Early American Life magazine.

When her stepdaughter suggested learning how to make baskets, Farrell assented but without much enthusiasm. Soon she was hooked. She signed up for classes at a shop in Harrisonburg.

"When I first started out I was just going to make baskets for myself and gifts," says Farrell, 63. "But after a few months I had 90 baskets in the house. I had to do something with them."

So she started selling them. Then, while visiting Nantucket Island (Mass.), she fell in love with the lightship baskets.

"I like the precision," she says. "I kept working at it until I got it right."

This year's Early American Life panel consisted of 29 experts including museum curators, historians, antique dealers and collectors, says Jeanmarie Andrews, magazine editor. The entries are judged by the artisans' use of traditional tools, methods and materials as well as the degree of craftsmanship.

Getting into the directory is a reward for a job well done, Farrell says.

"It shows I've given it my all to make a good basket," she says.

Able With Cane

Lightship baskets are made with cane, built on wooden bases and woven over wooden molds. The vertical spokes are often made of wood, too, but also from cane. The wooden spokes make the baskets "museum quality," says Farrell.

Like other basket materials, the cane - made from bamboo - is soaked in water for several minutes to give it flexibility. Otherwise it's likely to break when working with it. Farrell tried one time making the wooden spokes by cutting her own wood but decided "that's too much work."

A small basket takes about eight hours to make and the largest takes 40 hours.

"That's why they're so terribly expensive," says Farrell. "Still, mine look like bargains compared to the ones in Nantucket."

Farrell's offerings range from small fruit baskets to large grain baskets. Her baskets range from a large field basket, made with cherry splines, for $1,200 to a small Nantucket candy dish with lid that's $200. In the 1950s, basketmakers in Nantucket began making purses in the lightship style, but the lid alone requires days of work. The cost for one on Nantucket, she figures, is more than $1,000.

The closest place to see Farrell's baskets locally is the Artisans Center of Virginia in Waynesboro, where she'll be the featured artisan in August.

"She's proven over time excellence in her work and has a professional demeanor," says Elizabeth Moss, ACV's director of programs and exhibitions.

So What's A Lightship?

A lightship is like a lighthouse, except it's a ship. Lightships were stationed along the offshore shoals or ledges to warn mariners of their hazards. The Nantucket South Shoals extended 35 miles south of the island and posed a danger to coastal shipping. They were notorious for shipwrecks, according to the Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum Web site.

Citizens appealed to Congress and in 1854 the first lightship was stationed at the south shoals. The lightships were anchored to withstand the continuous beatings by winds and water.

The crew, as can be imagined, got bored being moored in one spot for months and months. One old whaling captain was quoted: "The loneliest thing he had ever seen at sea was a polar bear floating on a piece of ice in the ocean; the next loneliest object was the South Shoal lightship." And an ex-captain of a lightship said, "If it weren't for the disgrace it would bring on my family, I'd rather go to State's Prison."

Resourceful crews - Nantucket residents - started a cottage industry making baskets, thus bringing in some extra income to show for all their months offshore. The basket makers even had production lines that turned the bottoms, wove the staves and finished the baskets, according to the NLBM site.

Until then, cane was used to weave chair seats and repair splint baskets. The earliest baskets had pine bottoms but later cherry, maple and oak were used. Prices started at $1.50 for the smallest basket and went up to $50 for a nest of eight.

Carry On

The use of lightships began to wane in the early 1900s, but the basket-making tradition continued on Nantucket Island. Basket makers became known for their trademark embellishments, such as ivory or seashells.

Farrell makes her baskets in a Nantucket-style cottage with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She likes to listen to NPR while she works, or a book on tape.

"It's a peaceful, quiet place," says Farrell. She and her husband, Jim, moved from Delaware to their 19th century farmhouse 20 years ago.

Farrell still makes traditional woven freehand baskets. When she gets tired of making baskets altogether, she switches to soap.

Farrell started making her own soap during a bout with eczema. Now she makes 25 different soaps, shampoo, lotions and shaving bars. They're all natural with no chemicals, no preservatives and no petroleum-based products.

"If you breathe it in or put it on your skin, it shouldn't have chemicals in it," Farrell says. "What you put on your skin gets absorbed into your bloodstream."

Then when she gets tired of making soap, it's back to baskets.

Even though they're pricier than traditional early American baskets, Farrell's lightship baskets sell well, she says. In addition to the Artisans Center, she sells baskets at the Valley Green Gallery in Nellysford. Her traditional country baskets can be found at Southern Highland Craft Guild shops along the Blue Ridge.

Farrell also sells her baskets and soaps at fall and spring craft shows in Crozet, Art in the Park in Staunton and the fall Barn Art & Craft Show in Timberville.

Contact Luanne Austin at 574-6292 or laustin@dnronline.com. Section: Saturday Magazine Record Number: 10026292 Copyright (c) 2008, Byrd Newspapers, All Rights Reserved.

Country Lane Baskets and Herbal Soaps
855 Westview School Rd.
Mt. Sidney, VA 24467
Phone 540-234-9667 (EST)
Email: JCountrylane@gmail.com

JCountrylane@gmail.com