Peach Basket Bentwood Birch ? Folk Art Handmade Basket

I would love to know more about this bentwood "peach basket" I found the other day.  It has some age, there is wear on nuts, bolts and brass washers used in construction.  A lovely craft design.  It is also footed.  20 inches long.  Anyone seen one like it?

Peach Basket, no date Collection Jim Linderman 

World's Largest Gourd ? (Nice Gourds) Vegetable Folk Art Crafts

CLICK TO ENLARGE THIS WOMAN'S GOURDS
I think of them as the warts of the earth, but some folks really love gourds. For example, look at the gourds THIS lady has! NICE GOURDS!

An undated snapshot which reads on the reverse "Note size of the Bottle Gourd" and I guess you should.

More information on the Wild and Wonderful World of Gourds is HERE. (For example, the full story of New Guinea Penis Sheath Gourds, Can you get high on Yerba Mate (?) and the Amazing Wild and Squirting Cucumbers.

Original Snapshot circa 1930? No Date Collection Jim Linderman

The Art of the Pot Holder A Traveling Exhibition

The Art of the Pot Holder is supported by a grant from the Makers of Rayon and generous funding from the Skillet Foundation.

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Folk Art Masterpiece Pieces of RICE Folk Art Masterpiece

Folk Art Masterpiece. Four feet long and entirely made of hand-dyed rice kernels, each single piece placed by hand. I thought it was a pretty good (and pretty large) hooked rug until I got about fifteen feet away. 100% rice, whole-grain....and each tiny kernal vegetal dyed. Click to enlarge. I am inclined to run a "guess the number of kernels" contest but then I would have to count them myself.


When does a now extinct child's craft become a work of art? Well, for one thing, when it gets this big. No child made this. 4 feet x 3 feet and framed like the serious construction it is. This took longer than the hardest puzzle and I presume tweezers were involved.


Now tedious and repetitive folk art pieces like this used to be common, or at least smaller versions were. Certainly television took away much of the motivation, I suspect sleeping pills and sedatives have as well...obsessive art is far less seen than it used to be. This certainly would have won first prize at the State Fair around 1900 had it been entered, but there is no attribution other than the Midwest.


I have seen portraits of clown heads made of aquarium sand. I have seen entire buildings made out of corn-cobs. I have seen a Harley Davidson motorcycle constructed of dried beans. If there is a person bored and a wooden board, something will be made. But I could look 20 years full time and not find a piece as balanced, as big and as beautiful.



"Make-do" Applied Rice constructed "painting" circa 1900. Collection Jim Linderman

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books

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Yarn Bomb Bikini for the Dishes (!) A Poem and a Homemade Dish Wash Product for the Home

You can probably start looking for these on Etsy (or Yarn Bombed all over town, that being the latest hipster doofus graffiti art form...now that I think of it, a nice bikini around the corner telephone pole would be nice. If any followers find (or DO) one themselves send a pic and I promise to run it. ONE! I don't want to see graffiti swimming suits all over town, especially when it is zero degrees.)

Anyway, here is the poem neatly typed over the navel by our artisan.

If you don't look good in a bikini
You are either too fat or too skinny
So swim in whatever suits your wishes
But take me apart and wash your dishes.

Other famous crochet artists include Bettie Page (who made some of her own posing costumes) and...Okay I don't KNOW any more. But there are some. This is a wonderful way to present your product at the local craft fair, by the way. Make a human cardboard torso, hang boob and butt dishwashers on it and watch the money roll in.


18" tall crochet bikini mounted on human torso holder with original poem circa 1960 Anon. Proudly collected and displayed in his home office by Jim Linderman




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Leaf Sewing Cards

Same thing as the post following, but secular and much more fun! Milton Bradley invented the paper cutter (!) but his endearing quality was quality toys. I can't date this set, but each represents a different leaf, thus teaching the child understanding of the world around them rather than the one only available to those who follow. These splendid cards would easily date to the late 1800's, but the company continued producing them in various versions, such as farm animals, well into the 1950's.

Leaf Sewing Cards and box c. 1880 Hand-Stitched Collection Jim Linderman