Baskets by Sharon Dugan

Sharon Dugan, a nationally known basket-maker from Sanbornton, NH, will demonstrate making ash baskets at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen Retail Gallery in Hanover on Friday, November 20 from 10:30 a.m. to  3p.m.

Inspired by the form and function of Shaker crafts, Sharon produces a wide variety of original and Shaker-style baskets.   “I love things of tradition and antiquity,” she says.  “I have a great reverence for t he artisans behind objects that show the care with which they were created.   I strive, as did the Shakers, for consistent quality and integrity of design and construction.”

Her baskets are woven with pounded black ash splint which she splits and slits to width.  Handles and rims are carved from white birch logs, then boiled and formed to shape. 

Sharon has consistently been selected for inclusion in Early American Life magazine’s “Annual Directory of American Crafts,” which features approximately 200 of America’s best period craftsmen.  Entrants are judged by museum curators, antiques dealers, scholars, and professional instructors who critique entries based on fidelity to period materials and superior craftsmanship. Her black ash fishing creel appears in this year’s 20th directory. 

The League of NH Craftsmen is supported in part by a grant from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information about this ornament, call the Hanover Retail Gallery at 603-643-5050, email hanleague@valley.net, or visit www.nhcrafts.org.