Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
Virginia Petty to Create Miniature Natural Material Baskets at the Kentucky Artisan Center

On Saturday, May 12, Virginia Petty of Berea will create miniature baskets from dried natural materials such as daylily and hosta leaves from 10:30 am – 3:30 pm at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea.

Virginia Petty has been making baskets for many years and is primarily self-taught. For her demonstration she will utilize the natural dried leaves and vines that she finds and gathers in the region surrounding her in her gardens and yard in Madison County. Virginia collects her materials and allows them to dry naturally before using them. She uses the ‘bast’ or inner bark of numerous plants such as Mulberry root, Bittersweet, and Indian Hemp, as well as Daylily leaves, Siberian Iris leaves, Peruvian daffodil flower stalks and Hosta leaves.

Baskets woven from natural materials have evolved into a variety of styles. Some baskets have formal structures such as ribs, rims, handles and feet. Others are created from materials braided into coils, and some are woven from material crisscrossed from the bottom and woven upwards, adding more strips of material to increase the size. Baskets can also be created in a freeform manner into asymmetrical shapes. Petty uses the freeform method to create her miniature baskets.

Miniature baskets by Virginia Petty are regularly available at the Kentucky Artisan Center, located just off located just off Interstate 75 at exit 77 (Berea). The Center’s exhibits, shopping, and travel information areas are all open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the café from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The Center currently features works by more than 680 artisans from all across the Commonwealth. For more information call 859-985-5448 or visit the Center’s web site at www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov 

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea is an agency in the Commerce Cabinet of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.