Invasive Bittersweet Baskets
Wed, Nov 16
|Portland Arts and Technology High School
Learn to identify, gather/remove and make a round, twined basket using invasive bittersweet vines.


Time & Location
Nov 16, 2022, 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Portland Arts and Technology High School, 196 Allen Ave, Portland, ME 04103, USA
About the event
So-called "Oriental" or round-leafed bittersweet is a creeping vine with inedible berries that is considered invasive in North America. Frustrating to gardeners and arborists, and not readily favored by birds, bittersweet is a largely useless bane on wild land. We can use traditional harvesting techniques to tend Asian bittersweet in the wild: harvesting material for baskets while controlling and suppressing future damaging growth.
Learn to make a beautiful basket of invasive round-leafed bittersweet! We'll cover identification, responsible collection, materials processing and storage, and creation, including the basics of stake-and-strand twining and weaving. We'll shoot for a basket about 8" wide and 6" deep.
Space in this class is limited to 6 participants. Preregistration, along with a paid deposit, is required to reserve a spot in the class. Deposits may be fully refunded in the event of a cancellation a week or more before the class, if the space is filled.…