Bushel baskets
A bushel; an old UK imperial measurement, based on dry weight of goods such as oats, grain, or peas. The bushel was equal to 4 pecks, 8 gallons or 36.37litres; somewhere between a third and a half barrel.
Dry goods were tipped into the bushel basket, then tapped with a bushel stick to settle the contents, and finally levelled off again using the stick....a full but not overfull measure.
‘To hide your light under a bushel’ ;to keep quiet about your abilities.
Starting with a very simple form I’ve created a series of coiled grass baskets using the long grass in the fields, and stitching them together using raffia and blanket stitch.
Maths is becoming very important to me in creating this body of work. Each ‘basket’ will relate to the bushel either in its capacity or a proportion of its capacity.
This set of baskets consist of a half bushel, 10th bushel, 100th bushel, and 1000th bushel. The full bushel is still under construction.
Gillian Widden