Creating Bottles with Gourds and Fiber

Creating Bottles with Gourds and Fiber

Gourd and fiber containers have been essential for making human migration and commerce possible for thousands of years. This new DIY book takes a step back in time to show how different forms of fiber have been used to tie a loop around the neck or waist of a gourd or to weave an intricate basket structure to hold the handle. With more than 350 color images and step-by-step instructions, seven projects are based on water containers from around the world: a palm wine bottle from Cameroon, a canoe bottle from Borneo, a saki flask and a spiral woven bottle from Japan, a bule from Mexico, an intricately woven bottle from Indonesia, and a netted Hawaiian water bottle. These projects show the universality of the gourd in the human settlement of the earth, and make great projects for advanced gourd artists. Jim Widess has a zeal for visual instructions with crafts. He has owned The Caning Shop in Berkeley, California, since 1971. He lives in northern California.