RIPE
Redwood Invasive Plant Eradicators
Invasive Crafts with Adrian
Hi, I'm Adrian Klarner. This is the side of RIPE where we try to do what we can to use invasive plants as we eradicate them. Any excuse for removing invasive plants is a good one- so if I can sick an army of handweavers on H. helix... huzzah!
Carl's all over this site, so I've tastefully covered his face with forest.
Baskets
I make baskets from English/Atlantic ivy. We plan to sell baskets to raise funding for invasive plant removal. In exchange for donating a basket or two that someone has woven, once they're proficient and can make a good basket, I will teach anyone how to weave a basket with invasive plants.
These are made entirely of ivy
This one is pampas grass on a cottoneaster frame
I won't be weaving with that wretched grass again, but it's a nifty example of what can be done.
Broom Fence
I made a wattle fence out of scotch/french broom trunks. Despite its height, it's surprisingly effective at keeping those pesky deer out of the herb garden. It might just be that the deer need better motivation- we'll see what happens when the sugar snap peas start growing.
In progress
Completed!
Experiments in extracting bast fiber from ivy and broom are afoot.
Adrian Klarner answers some questions about baskets
What got you started on this?
Whilst reeling from sticker-shock at the price of storage baskets, I walked past a dumpster full of ivy that had been pulled at an ivy-pull at Sequoia Park and thought, 'hmmm, seems like someone would be able to make a basket out of those vines.'
How did you learn to make baskets?
I taught myself through trial and error and the internet. My first basket was so bad, it had to be seriously reenforced with crocheted yarn just to be solid enough to be a squirrel feeder. Pro-tip: your first basket will be your worst basket.
Do you make "Native American" baskets?
No, the baskets I make are primarily European or American Colonial style baskets. This is because I don't have the cultural knowledge to make "Native American" baskets. If I were to try to copy designs I found from books or the internet, I could only hope to succeed in making, at best, an homage toward "Native American" basketry. The symbolism of the patterns, color, shape, materials would be lost. We are lucky enough to have some amazing Native basket weavers in our area; if you're interested in learning about Native basketry, I encourage you to seek them out. You can also visit the Clarke museum to see absolute masterpieces of Native basketry.
Do you ever use native plants to make baskets?
No, when I started making baskets, I decided to only ever use invasive plants as basket materials. There is a lot of trial and error in learning how to process plants into weaving material. I think it would be a tragic waste to harvest native plants, only to throw the material away because it was improperly processed. Native plants are already under pressure from habitat loss, invasive plants, climate change- they don't need me coming after them for basket material. I'm also trying to encourage native plants to grow, so I don't want to go around yanking them up. Invasive plants, on the other hand, need to be pulled up and removed- so I won't lose too much sleep if I mess up the material processing.