Basketry Class: Making Your Own Foraging Basket (Berkeley or Sebastopol)

Around the world, baskets have been woven to gather food and medicine. This is your opportunity to learn to make your own out of common local plants, imbue it with your intentions and blessings, and deepen your relationship with your foraging practice.

This class is offered two times (not a series):

• Sat Sept 6th 10am-2pm in Berkeley
• Sat Oct 18th 10am-2pm in Sebastopol

**Register here NOT on Meetup: www.forkinthepath.org/classes**

What You'll Learn
Join us for a hands-on basket weaving program where you'll learn the timeless art of weaving with local Bay Area plants. In this immersive workshop, we'll sequence through all the steps to create your very own foraging basket using a ribs-style technique (sometimes called a melon basket). We'll cover sustainable harvesting practices, plant preparation, and the weaving patterns. Connect with nature and your creativity as you transform natural materials into a beautiful, functional piece to take home.
All materials and tools are provided, but if you want to bring a soft strand of fabric to weave in, that is welcome! Please do not bring plant fiber as it requires a preparation process we will be showing you.
Your basket will be able to fit about one medium-sized melon, as that's what we can reasonably accomplish together during a four-hour workshop. But if you want to make a larger basket later, you'll learn all the skills you'll need to do it in this class.

Some of the plants we will be weaving with include fruit tree prunings, English ivy stems, periwinkle stems, cattail leaves, red hot poker leaves, and eucalyptus bark. The basket shown in the photo is made from apple prunings (handle and frame), sedge leaves, seagrass cordage, watsonia leaves, cattail leaves, wisteria, English ivy, and eucalyptus bark.

Location and Accessibility
Exact address is provided with registration.
This program will be indoors and outdoors, at a private residence. About 30 stairs are required to get to our classroom. Masks will not be required, but if you have any symptoms, please plan to wear one to care for the community.

Instructors
Autumn Summers is an avid wild foods forager, herbalist, gardener, and ethnobotanist. Autumn is passionate about sharing her 35 years of experience in an accessible and empowering way. She teaches botany, medicinal plant cultivation, and how to safely and sustainably gather and use abundant wild edibles including seaweeds and mushrooms, in Northern California. She teaches at several herbal schools in NorCal and is the lead herbal educator for Herb Pharm.

Tamika Banks (she/they) (Berkeley class only - special guest) is a Spiritual Coach, Ancestral Innovator, and teacher with 20 years of experience whose work centers around emotional wellness and all things ancestral healing. She weaves as a deep connective ancestral practice, allowing the wisdom of those who came before her to guide her hands. Despite being relatively new to weaving - starting their first basket in 2024 - she has continued her weaving journey and fallen in love with the practice! On any given day, you can find Tamika dancing, hiking, talking to her ancestors, or hanging out with her beloved kitty Herman. Tamika is genuinely looking forward to meeting and sharing the love of weaving with each of you.

Additional support staff includes Carrie Staller.

Ticket Options
A portion of all tickets goes to local indigenous led organizations.

Adults

• $125 Pay it Forward (I'd like to support someone else to come)
• $100 Standard Ticket
• $75 Community Supported (these are supported by Pay it Forward tickets)

Children (recommended for age 8 and up)

• $65 per child (under 18)

About Fork In The Path
Fork In The Path offers transformational foraging experiences in California for the adventurous of all ages. You can check out our Instagram here or our website here.