French Bread Basket
With a gentle flare, the sides of the French Bread Basket curve from the rectangular bottom to the long oval top. The corners of the basket point lightly to form "feet". The slender double-wrapped rims create a solid framework to strengthen and define the basket's shape. Two ear style handles are notched into the rim, one at each end of the basket.
Reminiscent of a vessel, in particular the canoe - the early traveler's means of traversing the Maine woods - the French Bread Basket transports us to a time and place where the bread is great tasting and made with loving care.
Just as a true French baguette has crust, texture, and incredible flavor, a result of careful preparation, time, and the best ingredients, the French Bread Basket's beauty and functionality comes from the painstaking craftsmanship and the finest kind of materials that are used to handcraft it. The result is a basket of uncompromising quality and design for the table or mantle. The French Bread Basket is at its best serving a variety of breads and rolls. In addition it is a beautiful showpiece to display fruit, gourds, or dried flowers.
Artist's Notes:
The French Bread Basket was created as a result of a chance request at the Philadelphia Craft show back in 1987. Someone asked if I made a French bread basket. I said that I hadn't, but as we talked I pictured in my mind the completed size, shape, and form of the basket.
It was two years before I had an opportunity to actually design and make the basket, but when it was finished, it looked exactly as I had first thought it would. A basket's design doesn't always come about so easily. More often it is persistence, trials, and many re-makings that go into developing a design.
The vessel theme wasn't apparent until after the basket was complete. The basket looked as if it could be paddled down a river (except for the holes in the bottom!)
Collector's Comments
“My husband and I really like the two baskets! We have broken in the French Bread one nicely - there's a whole wheat sourdough baguette at the local cheese & bread shop that is a frequent (if brief) resident of the same. And the round basket has several uses. We both appreciate your fine workmanship and sense of design.”
Cynthia T. S., New Jersey